The eye of the storm
by vampyr-eternal
Summary: Having made her decision to stay in the Labyrinth, Sarah now has a whole new set of tasks to overcome in order to adjust to her role as future Queen. But not everyone is happy about her return, and what is it about Jareth's past that he is trying so hard
1. Mornings in a new life

_Having made her decision to stay in the Labyrinth, Sarah now has a whole new set of tasks to overcome in order to adjust to her role as future Queen. But not everyone is happy about her return, and what is it about Jareth's past that he is trying so hard to hide from her?_

_This is the sequel to The Pain Would Come_

_[edit] I've decided to update this one too, not nearly as much as the last one, but there's some dialogue and bits and pieces I wasn't happy with so I've changed them._

**Chapter 1 – Mornings in a new life**

Sarah awoke slowly, allowing her brain to gradually become aware of her surroundings; the comfy, outsized bed, secure in its familiarity, the vast room; sparse, yet cheery, the window leading to the balcony with the remarkable view over the labyrinth. Home.

Smiling, she stretched and felt the man beside her shift. He turned over and wrapped his arms around her, telling her to go back to sleep. Giggling she poked him in the shoulder saying it was a beautiful day and they needed to get up. All she got in response was a groan as his arms tightened around her preventing her from leaving the confines of the bed. His reaction made her giggle harder before repeatedly jabbing him in the arm with her finger, telling him he needed to let go so she could get dressed. After a few minutes of this she heard a roar from her companion and within seconds found herself pinned to the bed facing a grinning Goblin King.

"Now why, my dear, do you insist on waking us both up at the crack of dawn?" He said, with mock anger in his voice.

"I think you'll find that I simply wake with the rising of the sun, it's hardly my fault you're such a light sleeper and you know full well that if you'd just lay there I'd be up and gone within a few minutes leaving you to sleep." She replied, giggling at the semi-frustrated look on the face of the man in front of her.

Grinning in return the Goblin King lowered his face until it was mere centimeters away from hers before saying quietly, "Why Sarah, you know full well it's no fun in this bed without you…" with that he kissed her tenderly and for a while all else was forgotten. That is until the door burst open and a small goblin came rushing in holding a letter. Stunned by the scene laid before him he forgot to look where he was going and ran straight into the bedpost knocking himself clean out. That was all it took to send Sarah into fits of giggles contagious enough to get more than a little smirk out of the now slightly irritated Goblin King.

Sighing and muttering something about 'infernal goblins' and 'learning how to knock', the Goblin King got up to retrieve the letter from the unconscious goblins hand. He sat down on the bed to read it while Sarah took advantage of the opportunity to get dressed. She walked into the adjoining room that had originally been intended for her room, but she'd spent every night so far in Jareth's bed, so it had just become a room for her clothes and any belongings she might accumulate. As she opened one of the doors of her wardrobe she once again marvelled at the amount of clothes she now had. Back home she'd had a tiny wardrobe with a minimalist collection of clothes, now she suddenly had a wardrobe that stretched the full length of the wall and was packed full with various outfits. Glancing out the window and realizing it was once again a gorgeous sunny day, Sarah wondered whether the labyrinth had any seasons at all. Looking back at the wardrobe she picked out a simple black cotton knee-length dress. Almost immediately the door or her room flew open and a female goblin stalked in grabbed the dress out of Sarah's hand and throwing it back in the cupboard. Glaring at Sarah with her hands on her hips she said, "Lady Sarah we's talked about this, now I know Aboveground ya only wore black but yer in the Underground now and ya've got to learn to start wearing colours again."

Sarah couldn't help but laugh slightly at the oh-so-serious face presented to her all because of her choice of clothing. It was true that she still wanted to dress in black, she'd been wearing it so long she didn't really know how to wear colours, and so this argument had been happening every morning since she'd arrived here a week ago.

Of course wearing colours again was only one of many things she'd had to adjust to. After making her decision to remain in the Underground with Jareth they'd had a quiet dinner, both trying to come to terms with the events that had thrown them together. Jareth had explained that as a permanent resident of the Underground and his future queen, she would be granted certain powers, how much and what they were was not up to either of them. All the magic in the kingdom came from the Labyrinth and it was the Labyrinth that decided how much each subject of the realm got. Thinking of the labyrinth as a living entity was something Sarah was going to have to get used to. It made sense though, changing walls, doors that led to different places depending on which way they were opened, the Labyrinth was alive and the source of magic for everyone residing in it. As yet she hadn't manifested any powers but this was normal, the actions over the first few weeks in the Underground would determine what amount of power she was worthy of.

Through the course of dinner Jareth had explained a lot about the Underground. He'd explained that the Labyrinth was only one division of a greater Kingdom, his father's Kingdom. He'd told her of his family and their Kingdom's, but at some point during the meal, Sarah's physical and mental exhaustion after her trials in the Labyrinth had taken over. She was soon finding it hard to concentrate on what Jareth was saying, and it wasn't long before she was falling asleep at the table, so Jareth had transported her to bed.

What Sarah was unaware of was that he had spent the entire night watching over her, still stunned by the events that had led to her presence here, even more shocked by the fact she had chosen him. Even faced with the terrible reality of remaining Aboveground, he hadn't been entirely sure her love was strong enough to make her choose to remain here, with him. Whatever doubts he'd once had about her feelings were gone by the end of the night. As he'd watched her sleep peacefully with a small smile on her lips, he knew she was happy here. She was happy with him. However things weren't perfect, nowhere near it. Jareth knew there were going to be many complications due to Sarah's return to the Labyrinth. As the sun began to rise on that first morning of having Sarah back, Jareth knew he couldn't keep her presence here a secret for long, and when people knew about her, there was going to be trouble. His thoughts were deeply disconcerting, memories of his past haunted him and it wasn't long before he had to leave Sarah to sleep and begin to prepare for the trials he knew were to follow.

_Author's note: Any feedback would be greatly appreciated, even negative comments, as they help improve my writing._


	2. Enemies near and far

**Chapter 2 – Enemies near and far**

The goblin ran out of the room as fast as he could, fearing for his life now he had delivered his message. That his mistress had a foul temper was no secret within the kingdom, that in the past she had severely injured creatures who had delivered messages she hadn't liked, however, was known to only a few. This particular goblin was one of those few and were it not that his mistress paid him a small fortune for his information, he would not be giving it to her. Even so, he had spent many an hour deciding whether he should inform her of Sarah's return for fear of how his mistress would react. In the end his greed had got the better of him. However no sooner had he delivered his message than she had flown into a rage and began throwing anything she could reach at the Goblin. Deciding it was safer to ask for payment later, the goblin had run out of the room, leaving her to rage alone.

"Curse you Jareth and your despicable love for mortals!" She yelled, reaching for the last item left on her dresser, a glass-handled hair brush, before hurling it at the wall then looking around for other things to throw.

"You have been scorned before because of your love for those creatures and now this! You've been infatuated with this girl ever since she wished that brat of a brother away. For years now I have been sending the highest class of Fae women your way, in hopes you would choose a suitable match, yet you refuse to even consider anyone who isn't your precious Sarah." The venom in her voice at the last two words would have sent shivers down the spine of the bravest Fae, so filled with hatred were they, but luckily for her, no one was around to hear them, all those in close range having fled in fear at the start of her temper.

"And now, after I finally decide to have her removed from your life completely, you save her!!! No, no more. This cannot continue any longer. For a Fae to love a mortal is shameful, but for Fae Royalty! It is beyond a disgrace!" The hipocracy of her words never occurred to her for a second.

"This ends now Jareth! I will no longer let you stand by and ruin yourself like this. Sarah will be removed from your life one way or another. She shall be removed, and I will have the Jareth I know and love back once again."


	3. Maids, Kings and Wardrobes

**Chapter 3 – Maids, Kings and Wardrobes**

Her first morning in the Labyrinth, Sarah had awoken alone, a note by the side of the bed telling her Jareth had gone to sort out some state business and that when she was ready she should go into the adjoining room, her room, dress and then go to the dining hall for breakfast. The first thought to cross her mind was how she was supposed to get to the dining hall, she had no idea where it was, or even where this room was, having been transported there by Jareth the previous evening. Still it made sense to get dressed before wandering around the castle aimlessly.

She'd walked into her room only to be startled by a female goblin rummaging through the wardrobe. Curious, she'd watched the little goblin for a few minutes. The goblin was about three feet tall, all lumpy and with the wrinkled skin typical of goblins. The leather clothes she wore were nondescript and in places it was hard to tell what was skin and what was clothing, the colours were that similar. As she watched she heard the goblin muttering to herself that this most certainly would not do. As to what 'this' the goblin was referring to, Sarah didn't have a clue and was about to ask when the goblin took a step back and started yelling at the wardrobe.

"Now listen here, yer know full well that Lady Sarah needs clothes fit for… well fit fer a lady! Those dresses are old and tatty and if I present the lady t' the King in one of those he'll throw me in t' bog. So you just change them clothes t' what his majesty would want t' see her in or I'll have you chopped up and sent t' the Firey's t' burn!"

At this last part she grabbed both doors of the wardrobe, slammed them shut and turned around in a huff with her arms folded. It was only at this point that she became aware of Sarah stood in the doorway watching the funny little display. Ashamed at having been caught spying, Sarah immediately blushed which sent the goblin in to a fit of giggles and made Sarah forget to feel ashamed, so stunned she was as to this reaction. After a minute or so the goblin calmed down enough to speak again.

"Well now Lady Sarah, there aint no need t' be blushing like that, I were making enough noise t' drown out a thunder storm, taint to wonder I didn't realize ya were there. Now, lets see what this pile of wood has conjured up for us shall we."

With that the little goblin turned around and opened the wardrobe doors again, Sarah was stunned to find that the few ragged old dressed that had occupied it before had been replaced by a full wardrobe with everything ranging from everyday jeans and T-shirts, to sumptuous ball gowns. For a while Sarah stood there opened mouthed as the little goblin rummaged through to find her something to wear, eventually choosing a knee-length light skirt in a soft blue and a cotton strappy top in a lighter pastel shade, along with a pair of dainty white sandals. The goblin had turned around to find Sarah still with the shocked look on her face, looking rather comical with her mouth hung slightly open.

"Now Lady Sarah, why ya standing there catching flys in yer mouth instead of comin' over here so I can dress ya?"

The mock rebuke was all it took to get Sarah out of her stunned daze and talking again.

"I'm sorry it's just, well I've never had a er, a, erm…" realizing she was possibly about to insult the goblin Sarah stumbled over her words, which made said goblin start laughing again.

"I's a maid, Lady Sarah, an proud of it, t' be able to assist you is an honour, an so maid I am. Call me what ya wish, my name be Mandana, an happy I am for ya to use it, but should ya feel comfortable with calling me maid then that be your prerogative, and proud I shall be either way."

This time it was Sarah's turn to giggle, cheered by Mandana's happy attitude and free way of speaking.

"Then Mandana it is, and please, there's no need to call me Lady, I'm Sarah, that's my name and I'd feel a lot more comfortable if you'd call me that."

The roles had been fully reversed as it was now the goblin who stood open-mouthed in shock.

"Why La.. why Sarah, an honour it is t' serve ya, but t' call ya by yer given name alone… why I feel unworthy…" Seeing Sarah begin to protest she continued quickly. "However I can see ya feels uneasy being called Lady, so in private I shall call you Sarah, in public though, yer a Lady and must be addressed as such, court manners dictate it should be so, and so it shall be."

Satisfied with this Sarah simply smiled, nodded and walked over to Mandana to be dressed. Even now, a week later, she still felt a little awkward being dressed by another, there was always a feeling that she wasn't worthy of this treatment, but as Jareth told her time and time again, she was his companion and as such was held above any station barring his within the Goblin Kingdom. Not entirely satisfied, but realizing she had no say in the matter, Sarah had begun to try and adapt to her new life.

There were good things about having a maid, Mandana was always cheerful, any scolding was done in a way that left Sarah feeling slightly guilty, but always with a smile on her face. Their conversations during the time it took to prepare Sarah for the day, which so far included washing, dressing, accessorizing, which within the Goblin Kingdom could take longer than the rest of the preparation put together, and the application of a small amount of make-up, always put Sarah in a good mood, and dispelled any negative feelings she may have.

On her third day in the labyrinth, Sarah had been extremely grateful for Mandana, for after a full day's adjustment, she had begun to realize the severity of the decision she had made. For the first time since deciding to stay in the Labyrinth she'd had time to really think about what she'd done, and the thoughts she had weren't pleasant. She'd died. She'd said goodbye to Toby, and then died. There was no going back from this, she finally admitted what she had been denying to herself since she'd made her decision to stay. To her family she was dead, and she'd never be able to see them again. The thought filled her with grief so strong it was almost a physical pain. As she thought of Toby and her father, even Karen, she felt a longing for them that cut too deep for her to stand. She'd collapsed in tears on the floor of Jareth's bedroom, unable to comprehend the thought of never seeing her family again. For all the things she'd gained by choosing Jareth, for all that she knew she'd made the right choice, nothing could dull the pain of what she'd lost.

Mandana, who'd been in Sarah's room at the time making a list of all the things Sarah was likely to need in the Labyrinth, came rushing in at the sound of Sarah's crying, wrapped her arms around Sarah in a protective embrace and enquired with the concern of a mother to her own child, the cause of Sarah's tears. This simple act of a kind word and comforting embrace helped soothe Sarah more than she would have believed possible. She'd immediately poured out all her feelings and was amazing at how much better she felt simply talking to someone about it. Afterwards Sarah could never remember what it was Mandana had said, all she knew was that she'd felt better about the situation after talking to her. She'd gone to sit on the window ledge, and begun to think of all the things that had happened since her last visit, her father becoming an alcoholic, her stepmother never being home, spending every penny they had. Toby becoming dependant on her due to their parents impending breakdown, a life lived with no friends, a dead end job, her spiral into depression and finally her assault that left her near death in a coma.

Jareth had brought her soul to the labyrinth and she'd fought her way to the centre again, rediscovering her friends, making new ones and discovering things about herself in the process. She remembered being told she had to choose, between going back, risking never waking up from the coma her body was in, having to live with the pain of her attack every day, and in addition, knowing that if she returned, nothing would change, her father would carry on drinking, eventually killing himself through his addiction. Or she could remain in the Underground, her body would die, her family would grieve, her father would realize Toby needed him, and he would once again be the loving father he had been when she was a child. She'd gone back and said goodbye to Toby, before she'd relinquished her hold on life and returned here. Forever. She knew she'd made the right decision, but the grief was still severe.

At that point Jareth had walked in. At finding Sarah sitting on the window ledge looking out into the labyrinth, he'd been slightly afraid for her safety and about to scold her, only to notice a tear run down her cheek. That single tear softened the harsh words inside him and instead he simply walked up to her and put his arms around her. Sarah immediately turned towards him, taking comfort from the embrace. She'd explained her grief at losing her family and the words tore at his heart. Looking into her eyes he wished he could take the pain away, but instead, he could only lessen it slightly. He explained that although she'd never be able to see them face to face, it was possible to look in on her family. He'd produced a crystal and handed it to her. When Sarah looked into it, she'd seen Toby sat alone in her old bedroom, holding Lancelot and crying. The picture tore at Sarah's heart, knowing it was her that had caused him such pain and the tears began to flow once again as Jareth pulled her closer and began to speak softly.

"I know this hurts Sarah, believe me, if I could change things I would, but you know what you did was right. Toby's lost you and he doesn't know why, but the alternative, growing up with a sister permanently scarred by what those men did? You know you would never have recovered from that ordeal, not physically, not mentally, they would have destroyed you. I know you don't feel any pain from what they did now, but that's because of my magic. You have your memories, but the magic of the Underground shields you from the pain of those memories. Without that magic…"

Jareth paused, collecting his thoughts, trying to think how best to put it so that Sarah would understand.

"You wouldn't have been a sister anymore, you'd have been a hollow shell, and everything he loved about you, he would have had to watch die. This way he gets to remember you, the real you, the sister who sat up with him when he had bad dreams, the sister who read him bedtime stories, who gave him treats, who fed him when his mum stayed out with her friends and his father forgot to come home. This way he gets his parents back, and he gets to remember his sister the way he should, with love and fond memories. I know this is hard, but you did the right thing. He'll never forget you. He'll never stop loving you. He has to grieve for you, but the pain will pass, as will yours. You haven't lost him, not really."

He slowly took her hand in his, closing her fingers over the crystal, watching it dissolve slowly.

"This crystal is a part of you, a loan of my magic until you've gained your own powers. You have one crystal, use it to watch over your brother, over your family. Do not grieve for them, your sacrifice was a gift to them, you gave them happiness Sarah…"

He gently lifted her head so she was looking him the eye.

"and you gave me the same gift. Sarah I love you, I have ever since I first laid eyes on you. Do not grieve for a family you have not lost." With that he had kissed her, and she had known he was right. She loved him just as much as he did her. She was happy here, and everything he had said made sense. She couldn't be with her family, but she hadn't lost them… she'd gained something instead… happiness… and love.

The memories of that day still made her smile.


	4. Invitation to a foreign land

**Chapter 4 – Invitation to a foreign land**

Laying back down on the bed Jareth leisurely opened up the parchment grinning to himself as he heard Mandana admonish Sarah over her choice in clothes, he really should remove all the black items from her wardrobe, but honestly, he enjoyed the little disagreements in the morning between Sarah and her maid. Their light hearted quarrel always managed to put a smile on his face, and in his mind, that was the only way to start a day. It seemed, however, that was not how he was destined to start this day. As he read the letter his face gradually got more grim, until the smile had been replaced by an all out scowl. The letter was expected but couldn't have come at a more inopportune time. It read thus:

"For the attention of His Majesty King Jareth of the Goblins. As you know it is customary once a year for my people to host a banquet in honour of a neighbouring King, this year the people have chosen you for that place of honour. In light of your recently having taken a consort we would like to extend the invitation to both of you, giving you both the revered title of guest of honour. The banquet shall commence on the eve of the full moon, with a grand ball to follow. I look forward to once again acting as host to this magnificent event, and to meeting your new consort."

There was no 'yours sincerely', or any other meaningless ending to the letter, it was simply signed His Majesty King Gerard of the Caves of Arnagoth. For a while Jareth sat looking at the letter, his thoughts in turmoil, before finally letting out a curse and striding off the bed towards his wardrobe to find something to wear.

Sarah had only just managed to get into her dress before she heard the mild curse being issued from Jareth's bedroom. Curious as to what had irritated her Goblin King she hurried quickly back into the room to find him rummaging through his wardrobe in a fashion that clearly indicated he was no longer in a pleasant mood. Sitting on the end of the bed she picked up the letter and began to read, trying to understand the meaning of Jareth's ill temper. Of course when dealing with the Goblin King there was no way she was going to get away with something like that. It was mere seconds before Jareth had thrown the letter aside, grabbed Sarah in a powerful hug and proceeded in kissing the breath out of her. However Sarah was not so easily distracted from a task so a few seconds later Jareth found himself being pushed away by very determined hands and being asked what the letter was about in a tone that said he wasn't getting anything more until he had answered her. He considered teasing her for a bit, but the fact was that the content of the letter was far too serious an issue to joked about. He could only pray Sarah would understand…

He handed her back the letter for her to read. Once she'd read it she looked at him with a slightly confused look on her face.

"King Gerard of the Caves of Arnagoth?" She asked

"Arnagoth is another world, like Aboveground and Underground, the Caves are the civilized part of it. Most of the world is underwater; the caves are the magical part of the world, underneath the water. They work in the same way as Caracea, they are under the water but they are dry. The creatures that inhabit it are what you know as merpeople; mermaids and mermen. In the water they have a human-like upper body and a fish-like lower body. But they live in the caves, on dry land, at which times they have a fully human-shaped body. They're not the only creatures that live in Arnagoth, but they are the only ones we shall be meeting. The other creatures, the ones that live on the land above the sea… they're wild, uncivilized, highly intelligent creatures, but very vicious. They cannot stand water, hence the creation on the caves, a safe place to live, inaccessible to the others. Gerard is their King, we've never exactly seen eye to eye, but it was easier to remain at peace with him, rather than start a war. I don't know how he heard about you so soon, palace gossip no doubt, but to refuse his offer would be a major insult, so we have no choice. In just over a month you shall be attending your first ball, as guest of honour no less!"

Sarah studied him in silence for a few moments before saying "Why do I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me?"

"Because you're a very perceptive girl, that's why." He said pulling her into his lap. "But now's not the time to go into it, now you have to go back into your room and tell Mandana this news so she can go argue with that damned wardrobe and convince it to come up with an outfit to knock the socks of Gerard!" And with that he kissed her before getting off the bed and striding out of the room, to do what, Sarah had no idea. He was often busy with 'Royal duties', what these were he never told Sarah, but she didn't mind, it gave her time to get used to her new surroundings.

As the Goblin King strode off he felt slightly guilty about leaving Sarah again, but he knew he had no choice. Things were moving faster than he expected. He now had less than a month in which to prepare for Sarah's first official outing, he'd hoped to have longer to prepare her for the realities of the various worlds Jareth's Kingdom associated with. He knew this ball was not going to be easy for her, it would take all her strength to retain her composure through what was would learn there, and Jareth simply wasn't sure she was ready for it. He considered the option of refusing, but there was no way to do it without causing offence to Gerard and Jareth would not let his people go to war over this. No matter how much he loved Sarah, he was the Goblin King, his people had to come first.

As he reached his office he slammed his door in frustration at the predicament he found himself in.

"Now Jareth, there's no need to take it out on the door, you'll only anger the Labyrinth and of what benefit will that be?"

Jareth spun round at the sound of the voice to find his mother sat in his desk chair. Not lounged like he often did, but sat elegant and regal, a reminder once more that she was natural born Fae, while he was not.

"So I see you convinced Sarah to stay here. While it is beneath me to say 'I told you so' I do feel it necessary to remind you that I am your mother and when it comes to matters of the heart, never distrust my judgment."

The knowing smile on her face disarmed Jareth for a moment, making him simply glad of his mother's visit. Her next words, however, brought it all back.

"Now tell me, in the light of such glad tidings, why you feel the need to go around slamming doors." She said, whilst indicating for Jareth to sit opposite her.

Jareth threw himself into the chair, lounging with his feet over the side as usual, only realizing how unregal he really did act sometimes when he saw his mother's grimace.

"Gerard's found out about Sarah, he's holding his annual ball in our honour, on the eve of the full moon."

Immediately the smile left his mother's face as she took in what he had said. She was silent for a moment as she thought of the problem he had just presented her with.

"This is indeed serious, if not entirely unexpected. I fear there is only one solution. You need to be honest with Sarah, prepare her for what she will see in Gerard's Kingdom, that way it will be easier on her."

Jareth found himself unable to sit, and instead stood up and began pacing. He knew she was right and yet what she was asking was impossible. If her told Sarah about Gerard he'd have to explain about his own past, and he was not sure he was ready to deal with that scenario just yet.

"Jareth stop pacing, it does your posture no good at all. I understand that you do not yet wish to inform her of your past but to lead her into Gerard's castle unaware would be simply unforgivable. She needs to know what to expect."

"I am fully aware of that mother and yet knowing it does not make it any easier. You realize I could lose her through this?"

"If you believe that you're a fool! She loves you, and she will stick by you."

Sighing Jareth threw himself back into the chair.

"There has to be another way, even if it's only finding the means to refuse his invitation without giving him grounds to go to war with my Kingdom." An idea formed in his head almost immediately. "The library."

Without even giving his goodbyes to his mother Jareth transported to his library in search of an answer, leaving his mother to brood on his actions and fear for the outcome of them. Love was a splendid thing, but it was dangerous, oh so dangerous.


	5. The Castle

**Chapter 5 – The Castle**

As Sarah began wandering the castle in Jareth's absence, she thought back on her first exploration of her new home. She'd been completely awed by it. The castle itself was larger than she ever could have imagined. On her first trip to the Underground she'd only seen a few rooms of the castle, and as large as it looked from the outside, the reality of it was even more impressive. The real dimensions of the castle were hidden by glamour, a fact she discovered on her fourth day in the Underground. After spending the first couple of days learning about the history of the Labyrinth and the Underground in general, being taught important dates in the Underground calendar and other basic facts she'd need to know, she'd decided it was time to explore her new home. She'd spent the morning wandering up and down corridors, looking into room after room.

At first, most of the rooms she glanced into were guest rooms, similar to Jareth's but obviously smaller and less lavish than his, yet still they were larger and more luxurious than the bedroom she'd had back home. After a while the rooms changed, she found a few storage rooms filled with clutter, most of it children's toys. She'd enquired about this later to Jareth, and discovered they were the toys of children that had been wished away. Not everyone that ran the Labyrinth was successful, the trials and tribulations they faced showed they were not cut out to care for a child. The Goblin King had explained previously the Labyrinth was there to test those who wished children away, to make them appreciate that child, just as she had after her first visit. However not all were worthy of their children, so they returned to their own world without them. There were of course children who weren't wanted by the person who wished them away, so there was no one to run the Labyrinth at all. For all the children who remained in the Underground, new homes were found for them. Fae found it much harder to reproduce than humans, so children who remained in the Labyrinth didn't remain there for long, they were quickly adopted into the neighbouring kingdoms, where they would be cared for as every child should be. The toys that were in the storage rooms belonged to these children. Once a child was wished away and remained in the Labyrinth, all traces and memory of that child had to be erased from Aboveground, so all their possessions were brought Below. For many Fae families, they already had all the toys and other belongings a child would need, so the things of that child were put into storage. Many of these things were then redistributed Aboveground, to children who did not have many personal possessions. It was acts like this that made Sarah realize there was a light side to her dark King. As cruel as he could be, he had a soft spot for children.

As she'd continued her exploration she'd come across the throne room, a place she was now familiar with. There was even a small throne next to Jareth's for her to sit on when she was there, which wasn't often. As homely as the Goblin King seemed to think it, a room that obviously hadn't been cleaned in years and was full of Goblins and farmyard creatures was not her idea of comfortable. She'd then followed her old route to the Escher room. A room that held so many memories. It was here she'd first truly faced the Goblin King, where'd she'd fought for Toby, and it was in the ruins of this room she had spoken those words of power and reclaimed him. Being in the room brought a lump to her throat every time. She could still feel Toby's presence here, the grief at being separated from him causing tears to form in her eyes. She never stayed in that room long.

Further exploration of the castle had brought her to the servant's quarters. During her first dinner with Jareth, the presence of servants had surprised her. On her first visit she'd seen no hint of any presence other than the Goblins and their King, yet there was a whole host of Fae staff living in the castle. She hadn't stayed in the servants quarters long, she'd quite quickly strayed into their kitchen and immediately sent the whole place into an uproar, the servants surrounded her instantly wanting to know if they could help, enquiring if she was ok, if there was anything they could do for her. As flattered as she was by their attention, she also felt a little out of place, she'd thanked them for their kindness and hurriedly left. Sarah had never returned there, as close as she and Mandana were, there was still a distinct barrier between her and the servants. She didn't feel right intruding on their section of the castle, so out of respect she stayed away.

After a few hours of wandering up and down corridors, looking into random rooms she'd tried to retrace her footsteps, only to realise she was completely lost. She'd leaned against a wall for a small rest and had subsequently fallen straight through it. Like the wall at the entrance to the stone section of the labyrinth, this one wasn't real, but the magic keeping it hidden was more powerful, this was no optical illusion. As Sarah moved to stand up she realized that although most of her body was within the hidden room, her feet were still in the corridor, and it looked as though she had no feet, for the image of the wall still stood where her feet should have been. With a slight shudder she pulled her feet inside the room and stood up. Brushing herself down she looked around her for the first time and gasped audibly.

She was surrounded by books. All four walls, except for where the illusion of a wall between the room and the corridor, were covered in shelves lined with hundreds of books. As she looked up she saw that the room carried on way above where it should have, in fact she couldn't actually see the top. She stood there in awe, realizing there must be tens of thousands of books in this room. Having had few friends and spent most of her life as a recluse, she'd become a bit of a book worm, the sight that met her eyes right at this moment was enough to bring tears of joy to those eyes. At that point she was startled out of her reverie as two arms wound around her waist.


	6. Secrets and Chinese food

**Chapter 6 – Secrets and Chinese food**

Jareth had been sat in his office working on plans for a new section of the Labyrinth when he'd felt a disturbance within the Labyrinth. Drawing on the source of his power he'd located the disturbance to Sarah's discovery of the library. Instantly panic seized him, there were books in there on his history, books he did not want Sarah to see. He'd been planning on removing them before showing Sarah the library, now it seemed he'd have to distract her in order to give himself time to make sure all the dangerous texts were removed. Sarah's transition to living in the Labyrinth was going to be hard enough, it wasn't right to make her deal with certain details of his past just yet. He couldn't change it, no matter how much he wanted to, but he wasn't sure she would understand that.

He put aside his work and instantly transported himself to the library. As he appeared behind Sarah he heard her gasp of delight as she saw the thousands of books his library contained, and he felt a deep sense of pride. Before he'd become Goblin King there had been no library. His passion for literature, both that of Aboveground and Underground, as well as many tomes from the other worlds, had led to him creating this collection of writings. He was fiercely proud of it, and even through his fear of Sarah discovering the books of his history, he couldn't help but be glad that Sarah now knew about the library and could share his love of it with him. He smiled to himself before walking up to her and putting his arms around her.

Grinning Sarah looked up into Jareth's eyes as he began to speak.

"Now how, may I ask, did you manage to find this room?"

"I fell through the wall." It sounded stupid, but that's because she wasn't from the Underground, there were a lot of things that sounded stupid to her, she was just going to have to get used to them. "Jareth why didn't you tell me about this room? I mean, it's amazing!" she continued, looking back up at the books. "There are so many books here, I could live to be a hundred and not get through a tenth of what's here!"

"I wanted it to be a surprise, I knew how you loved books, I was going to bring you here in a couple of days when you'd settled in. However you didn't appear at lunch today, and when you still hadn't turned up by dinner I began to get worried. So now I'm going to take you away from all these dusty old books and get you fed before I have a stick figure for a wife." He kissed her as he swept her up into his arms and transported them both to the dining room. Grinning once again she looked at the table to find a Chinese buffet laid out. Laughing now she asked "Where on earth did you manage to find a Chinese buffet?"

"Well now my dear, you are not the human that resides in the castle, I happen to have two very skilled Chinese chefs and they were only too happy to learn that your favourite food was indeed, Chinese food."

The smile had left her face now, replaced by confusion.

"I'm not the only human here?"

"No dear, you're not, and I shall explain it all later but now, eat!"

He kissed her once again before lowering her to the floor and escorting her to her chair. The meal that Sarah ate that night was one of the best she'd ever had. Everything was cooked to perfection, not the food you would get from a take-away, made as quickly as possible in order to make as much money as possible, nor the pretentious food you'd get at a posh Chinese restaurant. Instead this food was made by two genuine Chinese people, a meal made for friends, with the appropriate care taken to make sure it was the best food they could possibly prepare. The fact that she hadn't eaten since breakfast made Sarah enjoy it all the more. She enjoyed it so much so in fact, that she expressed a desire to meet the chefs personally, however upon hearing that they were no longer on duty, and not wishing to disturb them, she simply asked the serving goblins to pass on her compliments and made a mental note to thank them personally at a later date.

The rest of the evening was spent talking with Jareth, all thoughts of the library forgotten, until her exploration of the castle had finally caught up with her and she'd been forced to admit she needed some sleep.

Jareth hadn't slept long that night, his thoughts were full of his worries about Sarah, how she would deal with the trials ahead. As a result he was up long before dawn and back in his library, not only removing the documents relating to his past, but also searching for the answers he required. In the back of his mind he knew those answers didn't exist, but he wasn't willing to give up yet. Even now, after hundreds of years of being the Goblin King, he still felt shame when he thought of his past. Would he ever make peace with those memories? That he didn't know. What he did know was that he never wanted to look at Sarah and see that shame reflected in her eyes. He'd do anything to protect her, and maybe himself in the process. Realising there was a good chance Sarah would seek out the library, he called on the power of the Labyrinth to seal the room until he'd finished his work there.


	7. Children, children everywhere

**Chapter 7 – Children, children everywhere**

The next morning Sarah had woken up at dawn, and realized she'd been doing that ever since arriving here, but it wasn't like the insomnia she had when she'd been living Aboveground, there she'd averaged three to four hours a night, some nights she wouldn't manage to sleep at all. Her sleep here though was different, she was getting a full nights sleep, and even though she was waking up at dawn, she'd wake up refreshed, instead of feeling like she hadn't actually slept at all.

As she turned over she saw that Jareth wasn't in the bed, but she soon found the note he left her explaining that once again he'd been called to do some business. For a second it crossed her mind that he could have been called by someone from Aboveground to take a child, that right now there could be someone running the Labyrinth. She glanced out the window at the Labyrinth, but that was as far as she let her thoughts stray. She wasn't sure she was ready to really delve into Jareth's business. What she was ready to do was go explore the library, however doing so proved harder than she'd imagined. She'd followed the path she had the previous day, or at least she thought she had, but at no point, as she ran her hands across the walls, did she come across the hidden entrance, and it wasn't long before she no longer recognized where in the castle she was. She'd tried to retrace her steps but ended up getting even more lost. Figuring that eventually Jareth would find her as he always seemed to manage to, she decided to take advantage of being in a new part of the castle and explore some more.

She reached for the nearest door and upon opening it got the shock of her life. The room she walked into was a nursery. There were toys strewn across the floor, ranging from newborn to toddler to older children, cots lining one wall, the room itself was decorated in pastel shades, the walls covered in murals of cartoon characters from Aboveground, and a whole host of creature portraits that she didn't recognize. It was as she was studying a scene of creatures that looked half goblin, half animal, that a girl who looked about two years old came scurrying into the room, caught sight of Sarah, forgot to look where she was going and proceeded to fall head first over a small tricycle. She began to cry immediately and the motherly instinct in Sarah, honed by years of caring for Toby, made her pick up the girl and try and soothe her tears, at the same time as looking for any injuries other than a bumped knee. So intent she was on trying to calm the girl she didn't notice someone else enter the room, until she heard her speak.

"Why Lady Sarah, it's a surprise to find you here in the nursery, although I'm sure Tabatha there is more than grateful you were here to dry her tears after such a fall."

Sarah stood there almost speechless for a while at the sight that met her eyes. The voice came from someone that could almost be called human. Almost. Although she had a human shape, she was clearly something more than human, there was an aura about her, her skin was paler than a normal human, the colour of pure ivory. Her hair was white blonde and iridescent, everything about her was, well the only word that came to mind was 'otherworldly'. She was beautiful, enchanting. She was Fae.

Realising she had been gaping open mouthed at her Sarah realized she had to speak before looking like a complete fool.

"I'm sorry, I got lost in the castle and ended up here. Tabatha's accident was my fault I'm afraid, although I didn't mean to scare her."

The laugh that issued forth from the woman's mouth sounded like heaven.

"Now my dear, do not worry about that, it takes more than you to scare her. No, she was merely startled by your presence here. Up until now, the only people she's had contact with in the Underworld is me and King Jareth. Oh now forgive me, I've been terribly rude, I know who you are but I have failed to introduce myself. My name is Carnice."

By this time Sarah had managed to gain enough focus back to shake the hand that was offered in a greeting, still trying to understand what was happening. She noticed that the young girl in her arms, Tabatha, was now fast asleep, not wishing to disturb her, but at the same time feeling like her arms would drop off if she remained in the same position much longer, she enquired as to where she should lay the girl.

"The cot in the corner should be free, lay her in that. I must say I owe you a debt of gratitude now, she's a hard one to get to sleep; I feared today I would have to use magic on her. Yet a few minutes in your arms and she's off to the land of nod, you certainly have a way with children."

Smiling as she stood up Sarah answered "I've got a young brother. I've spent a lot of time looking after him over the past few years." As she reached the wall she realized that five of the six cots contained sleeping children, one of them looked only a few days old. The sight pulled on Sarah's heart strings and she took a few more seconds than was necessary to lay Tabatha down. As she did so she heard Carnice walk over to her, and then felt her hand on her shoulder.

"It's hard isn't it, seeing the children like this. Hurts to think that someone that should have cared deeply for them, didn't care enough to keep them. And Sarah do not think that was aimed at you, you love your brother, that much is obvious, you fought for him, your words were said in haste and never meant. Do not feel guilt for wishing Toby away, yours was simply a test of courage, a lesson in love. For these children, they truly were never meant to be with their families. It's not all sad though, here they will be found homes, good homes, with loving families, they'll have a better life than they ever could have Aboveground."

"So they'll all be found new homes?" The longing for a happy ending was clear in her voice.

"Not all of them, for a lucky few, this will be their home."

"Here? You mean the castle…"

She was interrupted by a voice coming from behind her.

"Now Sarah, why is it that you have to keep wandering off and finding my surprises before I have chance to show you? First the library, now the nursery, if you keep this up I'll have nothing left for a special occasion." By the time Jareth had finished speaking he had his arms wrapped around Sarah.

"Well you leave me with nothing to do, I can't help it if I get bored, which then leads me to exploration…"

"And out of the entire castle you manage to find two extremely important rooms. Seems to me like the Labyrinth likes you."

Sarah was stunned. "Likes me?"

"There's no way you could have found this room, nor indeed the library had the Labyrinth not altered your steps. Both rooms are hidden by complex spells and intricately detailed corridors designed to get people lost. The library holds lots of information, and these children are precious, both need protecting. Yet in two days you managed to find them both, it wouldn't surprise me if your magic started to manifest very soon."

Once again Sarah was stunned, it seemed like that's how she was spending most of her time since coming to the Labyrinth.

"So back to the original question. Some of the kids stay here?"

"It's always been a tradition that every so often a child will remain in the castle instead of going off to a new home. They are raised by the ruler as if they were their own children."

"So you've done this before?"

"Yes, many a time. I am after all over four hundred years old. That's a long time to live alone. Every so often I'll rescue a child, and there'll be something about that child that makes me want to keep them, so I do. Remember the Chinese chefs I told you about?"

She nodded in response, once again staring down at little Tabatha asleep in her cot, now sucking her thumb peacefully in her sleep.

"Well they're twins, human twins. They were wished away by their mother, she was a heroin addict, couldn't take care of herself let alone two children. They were five when I was called, I loved them instantly. Cheeky little tykes they were, I had great fun foiling their schemes as they grew up. Of course they reached eighteen and being the headstrong boys they were, wanted to go in search of their mother, regardless of the fact she wouldn't even remember having them. After months of arguments I eventually sent them Aboveground. They found their mother had died years ago from an overdose, but they decided to live Aboveground for a few years, find out more about the world they came from. They lived up there for almost five years, before they began to miss being here. The boys returned and it wasn't long before I discovered their new found love of, and talent for, cooking. Having learnt to earn a living Aboveground, they decided they would become chefs here in the castle, cooking for me, any guests I may have and the staff of the castle."

Sarah couldn't help but laugh at the little story, in spite of the painful parts of it, it showed the good that the Goblin King was doing, and once again she felt guilty for the way she'd behaved all those years ago. Slowly she turned around to look him in the eyes.

"Jareth I'm sorry, for acting the way I did the first time I was here. I didn't understand what you were trying to do, all I saw was the villain that stole my baby brother, but I know that's not what it was at all. When I look at these kids, I realise what good you've done, and how appallingly I acted the first time around."

"Hush Sarah, you have nothing to apologise for, you were going through a hard time, your quest through the Labyrinth served its purpose, it made you realise just how much you love Toby. It made life a little easier all round. I'm only sorry I couldn't prevent any of the heartache that followed…"

Mention of her attack shot a little arrow of pain through her heart, the barrier was still there, and yet it hurt to think of. So she resolved not to think of it. Instead she turned back to the children in the cots.

"So, what about these children, you keeping any of those?"

She tried to keep the longing from her voice, but from the movement of Jareth's hands against her skin she knew he had heard it. She missed Toby, so much. Being away from him was like a physical pain. Part of her wanted, not to replace him, but to find another child to care for, so that maybe she wouldn't feel like she'd failed Toby.

"I'm sorry Sarah, I know you miss Toby, but these children have already been allocated to families. Tabatha's being picked up next week, along with Amy and Ben her younger brother and sister in the next two cots. Tyler is leaving in two days, and Carey and Adam will be gone the day after. The families are just sorting out their rooms whilst we make sure the children don't have any ill effects from the transition to the Underworld."

"Ill effects?"

"Nothing serious, some children get sick when they first come here, especially the older ones, it all seems to be psychological, they remember their families and don't understand why they can't be with them anymore. It can be hard for them."

"Why don't you alter their memories so they forget their families?"

"Altering a child's mind can be dangerous, they're still developing and I wouldn't want to damage them. Being in the Underground makes them forget anyway, over the course of the few months they forget their former lives, and soon all they know is the life and family they have here."

"So they're all going to Fae families then?"

"Fae? Not all of them. Why would you say that?"

"I don't know, I guess I just assumed… Jareth can I ask you something?"

"You can ask, but I retain my right as the Goblin King to give a vague and non-informative answer." He replied with a grin on his face.

Hesitantly Sarah asked, "Sir Didymus said, while we were running the Labyrinth the second time, he said that, you weren't Fae, you were human, is this true?"

Again she felt him tense up, and a look came into his eyes that she couldn't quite place, but made her uneasy.

"Yes Sarah, I was human. But that's all I'll say on the matter for one. One day I will tell you, but now is not the right time."

There was a few seconds of silence before Candice broke it by saying "Well, now that all the children are down for their naps, thanks in no small part to Sarah, I'm going to try and make some progress on my needlework. Sarah it was a pleasure meeting you and feel free to drop by any time to see the children, or if you would simply like some tea, biscuits and pleasant conversation."

Sarah smiled and gave her thanks, promising she would be back soon, before Jareth whisked her off to the dining room for lunch.

After lunch Jareth informed Sarah that he had to go deal with some alterations to the Labyrinth. She understood that he was a king, and he was busy, but it would have been nice to spend a full day together. Sighing, then realising she was being silly, she decided to go back and spend some time with Carnice and the children. Being around children again filled a hole in Sarah that had appeared when she'd said goodbye to Toby. These children couldn't replace him, but they made her realise that she'd done a good thing by coming here, she'd given him his parents back, and here she could help out other children who'd lost their families through no fault of their own.

She'd spent the next two days in Nursery as well, never seemingly being able to get enough of the children. The only dark spot had been during the second day she'd been sat watching Tabatha playing on a rocking horse when she'd felt a melancholy descend over her. Feeling as if there was something urging her on she held her hand out in front of her and created the crystal Jareth had given her and when she peered into it she let out a small yelp. The scene that greeted her eyes was of her family standing in a graveyard. Toby was in floods of tears, her fathers face was seemingly calm but tears ran steadily down his cheeks, even Karen's eyes were moist as she glanced down at the coffin being lowered into the grave. Sarah knew without even looking at the gravestone that it was her coffin. She was watching her own funeral. At that point she felt a door close in her heart. Her mortal life was truly over. Her family had buried her. Now all that was left was the grieving process and soon she would be only a fond memory. In spite of herself Sarah smiled as she saw her father lift Toby into his arms to comfort him, something he had not done in a long while, and Sarah knew then that it was going to be okay, her family was going to be ok.

Sighing slightly she absorbed the crystal back into herself and looked down to see Tabatha knelt in front of her with one hand on Sarah's knee looking up with the concern of a child who knows something is wrong, but doesn't understand what or why. Smiling truly this time, Sarah lifted her up into her arms and kissed her on the cheek. Then she sat for a long while hugging her, feeling the comfort of the child's embrace, no longer looking back at her old life, but looking forward to the life she would live here in the Underground as the Goblin Queen.


	8. Old friends and new acquaintances

**Chapter 8 – Old friends and new acquaintances **

And so it was that she'd been in the Labyrinth a week. After Jareth left to go about his preparations Sarah had spent a little time with the children before deciding it was time to go outside and explore the goblin city. It didn't take her long to find her way to the throne room and then to the main entrance of the castle. As she walked outside into the goblin city, she couldn't help but remember the first time she'd been there. The fight with the metal monster at the gate, Hoggle coming to her rescue, fighting her way through the city with her friends, the army of goblins that were there to stop her getting to her baby brother. For a second she felt a twinge of fear looking at the few goblins milling about, but of course she was being silly, there was nothing to fear, from what Jareth had said, they would never have harmed her, they were simply another test.

The thought of her friends made her long to see them again, the only problem was, she had no idea where to find them. She knew that if she got lost in the Labyrinth Jareth would find her easily, but she also knew the chances of coming across her friends in there were next to none. So taking a deep breath she walked up to a young goblin who was sat on the wall of the fountain in the city square.

"Excuse me." She said when she was standing only a few steps away from the goblin and yet he hadn't noticed her presence at all. So deep was he in his thoughts that at the sound of her voice he looked up so quickly, startled as he was, that he knocked himself off balance and fell backwards into the fountain. Immediately Sarah ran to the fountain and dragged him out before laying him coughing and spluttering on the ground. Once he'd regained his breath he looked up at Sarah in awe before eventually finding his voice.

"Er, Sarah, erm I mean Lady Sarah sir, um, I mean…"

Seeing his obvious distress and realizing that he was only a child, Sarah cut him off before he could get any more flustered.

"It's ok, you can call me Sarah, well if it's just me and you, I can't imagine the King or your parents being happy with you calling me that. Personally I don't see why, it is my name, yet court manners and all that. Now you know my name, how about yours?"

"I, er, I'm Martijn."

"Nice to meet you Martijn." She said, holding her hand out. She waited until he'd hesitatingly shaken her hand before continuing. "Now Martijn, you want to tell me why you were sitting out here all alone?"

"Well, er, sees I got a brother, an' he's older. So my dad says it's ok for him t' be working with my dad, but he reckons I'm too young, but I wanna help. He thinks that I'll get hurt, but he don't know, I'm strong and I knows how t' build. I just wanna help, but he won't let me." Once again the boys' shoulders slumped.

"What is it they're building?" Sarah asked out of curiosity. The look she got in return told her the answer should have been obvious, once again reminding her that she had a lot to learn about her new home.

"Well the Labyrinth o' course. Some girl came through yesterday, wished her daughter aways she did. Course she comes through the Labyrinth, not really trying though, she reaches one o' the tests, the dream one, gets offered her dreams, something t' do with acting I heard, a contract whatever that be. So she takes it, stupid girl, only at the last minute Jareth gives her another try, like he does, takes the spell off so she remembers her daughter, so the girl smashes the crystal, only she gets mad, breaks half the room apart. So my dads one of the guys who's gonna fix it. Only…"

"Only he thinks you're not old enough." Sarah finished for him, although her own thoughts were elsewhere.

She'd never really thought about the damage she'd done whilst in the Labyrinth the first time, the crystal ballroom she'd broken, the replica room she'd destroyed, the rocks breaking parts of the goblin city, and then finally the Escher room, torn apart in the end. All that damage, all that destruction, of course it'd had to be fixed, it made sense it would be the goblins who would do it. She'd simply never thought of it before. Once again she felt guilty about the chaos she'd caused by wishing Toby away. Then of course all those places had been built for her visit, even more work for the goblins. Yet the rational part of her mind figured that the goblins seemed to enjoy their work, this young boy certainly wanted to be out doing it. Which brought her back to the matter at hand.

"So Martijn, you're dad won't let you help him, but how about helping me? I've got a few friends in the Labyrinth, but I don't know where to find them, I was wondering if you could lead me to them?"

A light instantly came on in the boy's eyes at the thought of being able to help someone.

"Sure, I mean yeah, I could show ya where they are. Who is it?"

"Well one of them is actually a goblin. His name's Hoggle, do you know him?"

"Course I knows Hoggle, everyone knows him now, thanks t' you, he's famous."

"Famous?"

"Yeah, well he helped ya, he wasn't supposed t', least not as much as he did, coulda got into some deep trouble over it, but the King liked ya, so I guess he didn't want t' hurt yer friends or something."

Sarah felt mildly troubled at this, but relieved at the same time, once again Hoggle had proved that he really was her friend. Smiling down at the young goblin she'd asked if he knew where Hoggle was right now. Jumping up he said, "Yeah, I knows, he'll be in t' gardens, follow me."

After which he ran off at such at speed that Sarah had to call out to him to slow down or she'd lose him. So intent she was on following him that it wasn't until they stopped she realized they hadn't been heading into the Labyrinth, instead they'd run around the castle and were now behind it. Curious she looked around but all she could see was the back of the castle on one side of her and a long hedge on the other, there was no sign of any garden that Martijn had spoken of. She was about to voice her confusion when she saw Martijn was counting the windows the castle. When he was at the fifth window he stopped walking, turned towards the hedge and walked straight through it. Not in the way of he pushed his way through the branches, he simply walked through the hedge as though it wasn't there. Getting used to these sorts of surprises and illusions Sarah took only a couple of seconds to recover from her shock before counting the windows herself and, having reached the fifth, turned and followed the young goblin through the hedge, no longer surprised to find that part of the hedge simply didn't exist. What did surprise her however was the view that met her eyes on the other side of the hedge.

She found herself in the most amazing garden she had ever seen, it was nothing like the gardens that existed Aboveground, the sight of it literally took her breath away. She was standing on a small path made out of intricately cut stones set out to look like tiny labyrinths. On either side of her were long lawns stretching right past either end of the castle. In front of her the path split in two and circled round a huge tree, the likes of which she'd never seen. As she got closer she saw that each branch had an elaborate pattern of silver veins running through them, the silver seemed to glow with an essence of its own, giving the tree an ethereal luminosity that was breathtaking to see. On the ground all around the tree were what looked like miniature versions of the tree, all with the same natural silver artwork on the branches and now as she stood in front of the tree, she could see the same pattern on the leaves.

Dragging her eyes away from the tree she saw she was surrounded by flower gardens, none of the flowers she recognized, but all were beautiful beyond description. The colours were so vibrant, the shapes so delicate and stunning. She longed to reach out and touch some of the petals, see if they really were as soft as they looked, but a fear of ruining their beauty stopped her.

As she followed the path around the tree she found herself walking into a huge open space, the stones that made up the paving continuing the labyrinthian pattern. In the centre of the space was a magnificent fountain, nothing like the crude fountain in the goblin city. This fountain was made of pure crystal, the water shimmered in the sunlight casting spots of light onto the paving, making it look alive. Surrounding the paved circle were benches carved out of stone, there were six of them, all of them identical in shape, but as she walked up to the first one she found the tops of them were carved with scenes from the labyrinth. On the first one she found an overview of the entire labyrinth, so detailed was it she could spot some of the places she'd been on her two trips through. On the next were pictures of the goblin city, in fact it was more than that, it was a map of the city, depicted as if looking down on it from above. The third showed the Firey's dancing around their fire throwing their heads to each other. As she looked at it she could almost hear their song, and the memory of her encounters with them set her off giggling. On the fourth bench she saw a carving of the new lake and surrounding foliage that made up what used to be the bog of stench. The fifth depicted the Escher room, and even looking at a two dimensional carving of it sent her head into a spin. As she reached the final bench and saw what was carved in it, she felt her breath catch in a throat, seconds later a smile spread out over her face and she felt tears of joy fill her eyes. The scene on this sixth bench was quite simple, all it showed was her, dressed as she had been in the crystal ballroom, dancing in the arms of the goblin king. She smiled as the thought back on that moment, she hadn't remembered anything about where she was or what she was doing, all she knew, as she had looked into Jareth's eyes, was that she loved him.

She was broken out of her reverie by the sound of a dear voice saying; "He made those for you, ya know? Couldn't get yau out o' his head he couldn't. Kept singing that song over and over. He loved this garden, he'd stare into that fountain fer hours, just watching ya, making sure ya was ok. Eventually made those seats, they change every so often, showing different things from your journeys, 'cept the last one o' course, that one never changes, it's always you and him dancing."

Hearing Hoggle's voice Sarah couldn't help but grin. She'd missed him in the few days they'd been apart, not to mention the years before that. He was truly a good friend, and she loved him for it. She ran over and hugged him, but as she did, the weight of his words sunk in. Jareth had watched her, all the time they'd been apart, the smiled at the thought, but then another, much darker thought came to mind.

"Hoggle," she began wearily, "if Jareth was watching me, why didn't he… why didn't he help me? Why didn't he stop the attack?"

"'Cos he couldn't. He loved ya, and you him, but ya wouldn't believe it. Ya saw him as the villain, and no matter what, ya wouldn't believe he truly loved you. So he couldn't help. Ya kept him out, wouldn't let him in ya life, so he couldn't do anything. It were only when ya were near death that he could help, 'cos yer barriers were down."

Sarah felt guilty for even thinking Jareth would have let it happen if he'd had a choice, but she couldn't feel bad for long, she had Hoggle back, how could she be anything but happy? Hoggle seeing the smile back on her face said: "So, ya like me garden then?"

"Your garden?"

"Well ya don't think the sheriff planted all this did ya?"

Sarah giggled at the thought of the Goblin King on his hands and knees planting flowers.

"Well no I suppose not. But Hoggle this garden is wonderful, I've never seen such beautiful flowers and that tree, it's incredible!"

"Glad yer likes it. That's a Somoth tree, tis the true centre of the Labyrinth, all the magic in the kingdom runs through it, some say it's the soul o' the Labyrinth, now I don't know about that, but it's powerful all right."

"It's wonderful, this whole place is!" Said Sarah in awe.

"Ah ya aint seen nothin' yet. Come, ya gotta see the statue garden."

With that he walked around the fountain and through a gap in the hedge at the far side of the paved circle. Smiling to herself at the obvious pride in Hoggle's voice Sarah followed only to stop dead in shock a few feet past the hedge. She couldn't believe what she was seeing.

She was in a long corridor, bound on either side by tall hedges, the floor once again paved in labyrinthian stones. The area was only about six metres wide, but it was long, so long in fact that she couldn't see the end, but it was what was in this corridor that stopped her in her tracks. Every few metres the floor pattern changed, and instead of the random labyrinth pattern, it changed to a regular circular labyrinth pattern about a metre wide. Within each of these circles was a statue, made out of clouded crystal, and it was these that had caught her attention. The statues were spectacular! Each one depicted a different creature of the Underground. The one nearest to her was a goblin, it was perfect in every detail, right down to the stitching in its armour! The next was a tall plant about waist high and on the top sat perched a tiny fairy, just like the one that had bitten her at the entrance to the Labyrinth.

As she slowly made her way through the statues she saw many creatures she recognized, including the card guards, the Fireys and even Ludo and Sir Didymus. She also saw many creatures she didn't recognize, there were some statues depicting fairies that were the size of humans, the wings were phenomenal, the patterns seemed so beautiful even without colour. There were also a whole group of statues that looked human, but each one had a shield on which a creature was carved.

"They's the Animalanis, the shields show their other forms." The voice made her jump as she hadn't realised Hoggle was stood behind her, so engrossed she was in the visions laid out before her in crystal. He laughed just as he had the first time he'd made her jump just inside the entrance to the Labyrinth. She couldn't help but grin at the memory before turning her attention back to the statues.

"Hoggle these are incredible. Where did they come from?"

"From me!"

Sarah's head shot round to look at him, the shock clear in her face.

"You?!"

"Yeah, Jareth gives me a lump of crystal, I carve these." He said, glowing with pride. Seeing the shock on her face he continued, "Well what did yer think I did all day, stood outside the Labyrinth, taking leaks in ponds?"

The cheeky smile on his face made Sarah laugh before dropping to her knees and grabbing him in a huge hug.

"Oh Hoggle I've missed you!"

"Now don't ya go kissing me again, we both knows how that turned out last time." Hoggle said with a mock stern look on his face. Sarah simply grinned in reply before getting up and looking at the statues again. It was only then she realized that after going through the hedge she hadn't seen Martijn. She voiced her concerns to Hoggle who showed her through another hedge into a huge children's play area. There she saw Martijn playing with other goblin children and also the human children from the nursery. Tabatha caught sight of her instantly and came running up to hug her.

"Seems like you made a little friend there Lady Sarah." Sarah picked up Tabatha and looked over to find Carnice sat on a bench near the hedge surrounding the playground bottle-feeding a young baby. Sarah carried Tabatha over to the bench and sat down next to Carnice.

"So it seems." She replied, looking around at all the children playing around her. Most of them were goblins, but there were also the three human children playing on the large play equipment that included many swings, slides, roundabouts, climbing frames, sand pits, paddling pools, and a whole manner of different toys. The younger ones were playing in their own little playpens.

"You must your hands full watching all these." Sarah said, indicating the group of children which must have numbered almost thirty.

"One of the many benefits of having magic, children are easier to control if you know that should a disaster happen you can call on magic for help. Of course it's harder now that I can no longer threaten them with a dip in the bog of stench." Carnice replied with a sly smile on her face.

Laughing Sarah answered, "I'm afraid that may be my fault."

"Yes I did hear about that. I joke about it, but we're all glad it's gone really, foul place it was, makes the Labyrinth much nicer the way it is now."

"It is pretty now isn't it, but it's nothing compared to Hoggle's gardens, they're astounding!"

"They truly are. Many a year Hoggle has toiled to create these gardens, they are his pride and joy, and Jareth's too, that's one of the reasons they're hidden away."

"One of the reasons?" Sarah asked, curious.

"Yes, he likes to keep them for himself, his friends, and special guests. Of course the goblins know about them and how to enter them, but they love them as much as he does, they love anything created by goblin hand, fiercely proud creatures they are. The children are another reason, he feels safer knowing that only people he trusts wholeheartedly know about this playground, he cares for all the children here, both goblin and human. He protects them completely. Then of course there's the personal aspect of the gardens. It can't have escaped your notice there are certain objects in the garden related to you."

"Yes, I saw the benches." Sarah answered, blushing slightly.

"One of many memories he preserved in these gardens, I assure you. He does not like the thought of strangers rooting through his memories. So the gardens are hidden, spells protect them so that even if an intruder were to find the entrance, he wouldn't be able to enter the true gardens, instead he would be led through an intricate maze in which he would get lost until the King saw fit to deal with him."

Sarah was once again faintly troubled. She knew her King had a cruel side, and yet she loved him. For all his faults, she loved him.


	9. How to become a Goblin Queen Part 1

**Chapter 9 – How to become a Goblin Queen, part 1**

Jareth had found himself distracted all day. He'd been cursing the Labyrinth for all it's meddling over the past week, showing Sarah to the library and then the nursery. Why the Labyrinth felt the need to open doors to Jareth's past he did not know, he simply knew he had to be careful and watch for any more signs of interference. After lunch he'd gone back to the library to continue his search, only to discover he couldn't concentrate, his mind was full of thoughts of Sarah. Eventually he'd given in and created a crystal and began to watch Sarah. What had started out as a few minutes of innocent observation, had turned into full on spying as he'd been unable to drag himself away from watching her. The love her felt for her was growing by the day, as was the fear of losing her. His thoughts had been interrupted though, a summons had come from Aboveground and he grabbed his troupe of goblins and goAboveground.

He found himself in a dingy little flat which looked like it hadn't been cleaned in years. The windows were that murky there was barely any light, there was rubbish all over the floor, everything was coated in a layer of dirt, the Goblin King felt contaminated just being there. Making sure his face contained his trademark look of arrogance he turned to face the woman laid out on the bed. She was in her late twenties, unbelievably she was dirtier than the flat, even from across the room Jareth could smell her stench. As he looked at her he tried to control his temper, no matter how unfit the woman was to be a mother, he was the Goblin King, and he had to act like one, he simply couldn't let his personal feelings cloud his judgment. The woman would get a fair go at running the Labyrinth. Not that he had any hope of succeeding, she was barely conscious, he didn't know what drug she had in her system but he knew it was wearing off. With a slight incline of his head he sent the goblins scurrying all over her, resulting in a fit of hysterics from the girl. Calling the goblins away, Jareth waited until she had composed herself, and in turn realized he was there. After a few minutes of her staring at him, open mouthed in confusion, he eventually spoke.

"So I believe you wished away your daughter to me."

For a while there was silence, he could almost see the thoughts running through her head, trying to remember if she had indeed done that only moments ago. He saw the moment when she registered what she'd done, but the reaction wasn't so great, there was none of the panic of someone who'd really cared what she'd done. The anger began to seethe through Jareth again, and it took all his strength to say his next words in an even tone.

"Do you understand what you have done?"

Slowly her mouth began to move. "Yes. Kiera. Wished away. I did that. I shouldn't have done that. She's my Kiera."

"Was, your Kiera. Now she's my Kiera."

He saw it then, the flash of panic. It faded quickly though, what was left was more of an uncomfortable feeling, rather than real fear. Slowly she dragged herself to her feet, looking round in some confusion, checking that Kiera really was gone, she wasn't just imagining all this. Eventually she looked up at Jareth, her eyes gained some focus, her voice became steadier, but there was still that vagueness about her that said she wasn't really sure what she was doing.

"I want her back."

"What's said is said. Kiera is mine now."

"But Kiera's mine. My daughter. Not yours. You can't have her."

"On the contrary, you wished her away to me. She is mine now. So go back to your bed, go back to your drugs. Kiera is no longer your concern."

"No." This time her voice was clear. "I want her back."

Smirking, Jareth produced a crystal. Rolling it back and forth in his hands he offered the girl her dreams, as was required. However now she had fully grasped the situation, she wasn't about to let go. She wanted her daughter back. The offer of her dreams halted her for a moment, but eventually she found the resolve to say no. Jareth was disappointed, he'd hoped she'd take his dreams and leave him be, but it seemed she wasn't quite as far gone as he had thought. Still, he had no doubt she would fail along the way. The thought of sending a baby back to this mess disgusted Jareth, but there were rules to being the Goblin King, and he had to follow them. He quickly transported her to the hill outside the Labyrinth, gave her the customary speech and left her to it.

No sooner had he sat back down in the library but he heard a second summons. Cursing the timing he summoned the next troupe of goblins and set out again. This time he found himself in a stunning kitchen. The room was enormous, and the fittings were beautiful. It spoke of money and good breeding, done out in black granite and chrome, with white marble dotted around for decoration. The wooden cupboards looked of the highest quality and the floor tiles, although simple, were clearly made to stand the test of time.

He found the girl looking around franticly calling her brother's name. She was a complete contrast to the last girl, already this one was terrified of the consequences of the words she had spoken. So panicked was she that it was a few more seconds before she noticed the Goblin King stood serenely in her kitchen. The shock of seeing him caused her legs to buckle and instantly she was on the floor, staring up at Jareth open mouthed.

"Wha- What did you do to him?" She managed to force out.

"I did nothing to him, it was you who wished him away, I was simply the means to granting that wish."

"I didn't mean it! You know that! It was an argument, stupid, it was sibling stuff, I said that to hurt him, like he hurt me. But it wasn't his fault, and I never wanted him taken. You know I never meant it! You can't have him, he's my brother!"

By this time she'd dragged herself to her feet, her stance was one of power, anger coursed through her, both at Jareth and at herself for being so stupid. She was determined to win her brother back, no matter what it took. Jareth knew she'd make it through the Labyrinth without any problems. She would be an easy one. However it didn't change the fact that there were now going to be two girls running the Labyrinth. For an instant he thought about just giving the girl her brother back, but once again, rules were rules, and he had to obey. So he gave the customary speech, interrupted multiple times by outbursts from the girl, before leaving her outside one of the other entrances to the Labyrinth. This was less used than the main entrance and was created solely for times like this when there were multiple runners.

Leaving Amanda to her own devices he created a crystal to check on Amy, the first girl. The second call had taken longer than he'd thought, Amy had already found her way into the next level on the Labyrinth. Accepting it was going to be a long day he transported himself to the stone maze and found Amy lying on the floor wracked with sobs. Jareth couldn't help but look at her with slight contempt, she'd wished her daughter away and all she could do was feel sorry for herself. Once again he composed himself as the Goblin King before speaking.

"Well look at what we've got here. I'm afraid crying won't help you get your daughter back."

"Kiera…"

"Yes Kiera. But forget about her, I know what you want, what you crave." He produced a crystal, but there were no tricks this time, he simply knelt down in front of her and held it mere inches from her face. "In this crystal are all the drugs you'll ever need. Take it. Forget about Kiera, she only makes you miserable. But this, this will make you happy, it'll make you forget her. Then you can carry on your life, like it was before she came along…"

He could see the temptation in her eyes, as soon as he'd mentioned drugs her eyes had become locked on the crystal. Even as he spoke she never looked at him, her mouth slowly opened in wonder at the gift being offered to her. She reached out her hand slowly to take it, but she hesitated, feeling that something this good couldn't be real. People don't just give you free drugs, they always expect something in return. Kiera. She knew the price, knew what taking the crystal would cost her, and yet still her hand crept towards it. It was only at the last second, as her fingertips were millimeters away from brushing the crystal, that she seemed to remember just who Kiera was. Instantly she sat on her hands, a physical representation of her refusal to give in. Jareth sighed before throwing the crystal in the air and disappearing simultaneously.

He reappeared in the library once again settling down to the task of his research. So lost in his troubled thoughts was he, that he only realised hours had past when in frustration he hurled a book at the wall, smashing the glass face of the old grandfather clock. Immediately cursing himself for getting distracted he created a crystal and saw that Amanda had was nearing the point of requiring a test. Jareth still hadn't visited either of the children, at this rate both girls would arrive at the castle unhindered before he could even get his first glance of those wished away. Groaning in he was about to transport himself to Amanda when a thought flashed into his mind. Sarah. One day she would be Goblin Queen, and as such, the duties of the Labyrinth would become hers as well as his. Grinning to himself he created a crystal and looked in it to find her location.

He saw her in the gardens and then appeared beside her. Whilst lifting Tabatha up and sending her off to play he said, "Sarah, I need your help. Come with me. Carnice, please forgive the intrusion." With which he grabbed Sarah's arm and transported her to the throne room.

"Sarah I hate to ask this but I require your help. Two girls have just wished their siblings away almost simultaneously, normally I could handle it alone but with all the plans for the ball, I'm not going to be able to do a proper job. One of the girls wished away her twin brother, she meant it as a joke but there was enough of a twinge of hatred within her to make the wish come true. The tests I've set for her are quite simple as she does love her brother, so doesn't need much of a test to make her appreciate him. I'm going to put you in charge of her." He handed her three crystals then continued.

"These crystals will show you where she is, at certain times they will begin to grow bright blue, simply hold them in your hand, they will be absorbed into you and you will know what to do for each test. If you need my help use a crystal to call me, now I must go, the second girl will be trickier and requires every test I can throw at her or we'll have another abandoned child in the nursery, although in this case I'm not sure that'd be a bad thing."

Before Sarah could even respond he'd kissed her on the cheek and disappeared from the room. She stood there stunned for a few minutes, unable to comprehend that she was suddenly to become the villain in the same Labyrinth she'd run years before. For all she'd recently learned about the Labyrinth, a part of her still did not want to play that part, she did not want to be seen through the eyes of a girl, terrified at having wished her brother away. Yet as she looked at the crystals in her hand, she knew she was going to do it, she had to, Jareth needed her, she couldn't let him down. So she looked into the crystal and found herself looking at the face of a girl around 18 years old, looking thoroughly scared at the situation she'd found herself in . So far she'd managed to find her way out of the entrance corridor and into the stone part of the Labyrinth, Sarah found herself wondering if the girl had met the worm, and resolved that when this was over, she'd finally take the worm up on its offer of tea.

It was then that the crystals began to glow blue, and Sarah realized it was time to test the girl. Slowly the crystals began to absorb into her skin, and as they did the details about the girl and what Sarah had to do for this particular test became clear in Sarah's mind. The girl was called Amanda, her brother, Jake. Amanda had wished Jake away in the heat of an argument about Amanda's latest boyfriend. She was a sweet girl and did truly care about him, shame her boyfriend didn't feel the same way about her. Jake had discovered he'd been cheating on his sister, confronted him about it, and the resulting row and turned into a full blown fight. When he told Amanda later, she was hurt by the revelation she was being cheated on and had turned on Jake, blaming him for being the one to inform her of this. In the heat of the moment she'd spoken the words, reverting back to the child within her due to the pain her boyfriend had caused her. She'd regretted it instantly, but it was too late.

All this went through Sarah's head in an instant and when she opened her eyes she realized she was now standing in the stone Labyrinth. She felt dizzy for an instant, disorientated by the transportation, not least of all because she hadn't been expecting it. It was Jareth's magic that had done it, and her body simply wasn't used to holding power. However the moment passed and Sarah stood up straight just in time for Amanda to come around the corner then stop dead in surprise at seeing Sarah.

"You're not the Goblin King!" The girl stated in surprise.

"No, I'm not, I'm the Goblin Queen." The replied came so naturally that it surprised Sarah, of course she knew it was part of the crystal's magic, and yet it felt right to say. "Though it matters not who I am. So tell me, how are you enjoying our Labyrinth?" She got an intense feeling of de ja vu speaking those words, yet they flowed as if they were her own.

She watched the girl's reaction, it was nothing like her own had been at hearing that question. Instead of the cocky bravado, there was a timidness to this girl, she was afraid, truly afraid of losing her brother, and it showed. Amanda's reply was apprehensive, fearful of making things worse for herself.

"It's hard, seems like I've been here hours, but I've hardly moved, please, you know I didn't mean it, please give my brother back."

Instead of feeling scorn for the girl, Sarah admired her for her answer. Instead of hiding her fear behind fake confidence as Sarah herself had done, this girl was truly honest about how she felt, more interested in getting her brother back than how she looked to others.

"Now what kind of Queen would I be to simply let you give up? No, that wouldn't do at all. How about this?" With which, Sarah produced a crystal, and began moving it in the same way she'd seen Jareth do. "This crystal, last time you saw it, it was an offer of your dreams, but not this time, the time for you has passed, now it's about your brother. What will happen if you go back? There's no guarantee of happiness back in your world. He could end up in a dead end job that he hates, alone in a bed-sit, no friends, forgotten by his family, he was never any good in school, you know that. Do you really want him to end up like that?" There were tears in Amanda's eyes now as she shook her head desolately. "No, I didn't think so, but this crystal could change all that. Take it, it's his dreams, if you take it, you go home, everyone forgets Jake even existed, he gets to remain here, in a fantasy world, where all his dreams are played out, he'll live in a world he invented in his head, where the pain of real life can't touch him. His own perfect little world…"

Sarah could see the thoughts as they passed through Amanda's head, the emotions clear on her face. She wanted her brother to be happy, wanted to give him his dreams, but at what expense? The world he'd be living in didn't exist, he'd be living inside his head, and that was no kind of life, not really. Amanda was torn between giving Jake a perfect life, and giving him a real life. It was a hard choice, but there was only one real outcome. Sarah saw the second it came over her face. A hardness came into it, a resolve that she would not lose him. Sarah saw the strength appear that would get Amanda through this Labyrinth and she smiled inwardly.

"No, I won't do it. Jake wouldn't want that. To live a life that doesn't exist, away from everyone he cares about? NO! I won't take that crystal! I'm going to get him back!"

Sarah laughed in that characteristic way that Jareth always had, before throwing the crystal in the air and disappearing. The only thing left of her presence was a faint echo of her voice saying, "Nine hours Amanda, nine hours."

As she materialized back into the throne room, Sarah felt a moment of dizziness before regaining her composure, transporting by herself took a lot out of her, she still wasn't used to this borrowed magic. Gazing back into the crystal she saw that Amanda was now moving through the Labyrinth at quite a speed, it seems the test had worked in giving her the determination she needed to continue fighting for her brother.


	10. One down

**Chapter 10 – One down…**

At the same time Sarah was watching Amanda, Jareth was sat watching Amy in a crystal. She had passed the halfway mark, incredibly, and was nearing her main test. She was going a lot slower than most, despite having no disadvantage. The rules of the labyrinth stated that all runners had to be free of chemical distractions. So all drugs, alcohol, toxins and addictions were removed from their bodies. Yet, even though her body no longer craved it, her mind did. It was clear in Jareth's mind what her test would be. The goblins had just finished the construction and at that moment Amy found the mango Jareth had left her. Within seconds she was transported into a room she knew well. She'd been to many a party in the original room of which this was a replica. Drug fuelled gatherings that could last days. Drugs were the strongest temptation Amy had, this test offered her a lifetime supply of whatever she desired. There was no need for Jareth to participate, he would only distract her from the test. He couldn't help but think how different this was to Sarah's test.

The ballroom. Thinking back on that time sent shivers down his spine, as he remembered just how close he'd been to kissing her. As with Amy, Sarah's test had been easy to choose. Jealousy had played a big part in Sarah's decision to wish Toby away, but not only that, there was the feeling of being unloved, caused by the lack of attention from her father after his marriage to Karen, and then Toby's birth. Many a time Jareth had asked himself whether it was necessary for himself to have been involved in the test, but each time it came down to this; he couldn't stand the thought of someone else touching Sarah. And so, it had become a test for him too. He was torn between his desire to see Sarah succeed in winning Toby back, and in wanting to kiss her. If she had kissed him, she would have failed, her own desire for love having over-ridden her love for her brother. She had passed the test, but watching her walk away from him had torn at Jareth's heart, making him wish, just for a second, that she had failed. He'd wanted so much to feel the sensation of her lips upon his, of knowing his love for her was reciprocated. But in the end she was too strong, she'd won back Toby and he'd had to let her go. It seems that some things are just meant to be though, for now she was back in his life, and they were together, as they always should have been.

Realizing he'd let his mind wander, he quickly turned his attention back to the crystal, and the sight that met his eyes sent relief coursing through his veins. She had failed. Kiera was his; she would not have to be sent back to that pit of squalor. He looked at the now unconscious Amy with no pity. With a flick of the wrist the crystal vanished and the girl was sent aboveground with her endless supply of drugs. Jareth knew she wouldn't survive the week, but that was not his problem now. Kiera was.

He created a crystal to look in on Sarah, see how she was faring. He found she had already started Amanda on her next test, and Amanda certainly looked to be faring a lot better than Amy had. Amanda's test had been harder to create. She had no major dream, no addiction, no need. She had many minor dreams though, it was hard to know which was the most tempting, but in the end it had become clear – her future. Amanda had always dreamed of becoming a nurse. She was more than intelligent enough to be a doctor, but having spent quite a bit of time in hospital, visiting her ill grandmother, she'd realized how little time the doctors had to care for the patients as individuals. For the doctors, they were so busy all they had time to do was examine, diagnose, treat, move on to the next patient. It was the nurses that got to interact with the patients, to get to know them, to care for them on a personal as well as medical level.

She also dreamed of moving away from London, going to a University up north, away from the stresses of living down south, with her parents. She was sick of going to the same places, seeing the same group of friends, she wanted to start somewhere new, make a whole new set of friends, in a fresh environment. There was only one problem; she had the brains for medicine and the money for Oxford. All her arguments with her parents had come to nothing. In the end she had no choice, she was going to Oxford University to become a doctor.

Her test was quite simple really. As with all the runners, she lost her memory of recent events, became confused enough to accept the reality she was faced with after eating the fruit. She was back at home, had just received a letter in the mail, it was her final reply; she had been accepted into every university she had applied for. Now all she had to do was choose. If she ticked the University of Leeds, her first choice, she would choose her dreams, and lose her brother. If she ticked Oxford, her parent's choice, she would pass her test. She would be placing her family first, realizing their importance in her life. The choice was simple enough; all she had to do was understand the reasons behind it.

Amanda hesitated only a moment, long enough for her dreams of the future to take shape in her mind, but not enough to let them tempt her. As she looked around the living room, she realized how much she owed her parents, and so it was, with only the smallest twinge of regret that she ticked Oxford.

Immediately the image faded from the crystal. Jareth no longer needed to watch, Sarah was clearly doing a great job, there was no need for him to interfere. She was a natural, taking on the role of Goblin Queen with ease, for which Jareth was grateful. To have a queen with which he could share his duties, as well as his home and of course his heart, had always been his dream. To see it becoming a reality warmed his soul. Of course Sarah was still a long way off being a true queen. There were laws and court etiquette to learn, important families to become acquainted with. Not to mention winning his parents approval, no simple task. But for now he was simply grateful she was on her way to becoming his queen.

Throwing the crystal in the air and making it disappear, always one for flamboyance even when he was alone, he decided it was finally time to meet little Kiera. He transported himself to the nursery and was met by a visibly upset Carnice, holding a screaming baby. No sooner had he appeared than Carnice began to admonish him. "Now I know you require complete concentration when you're dealing with a runner, but you need to stop blocking all attempts to contact you!"

"Carnice, you may be angry but I am still your King, do not…"

"Oh don't start with that King lark, I've known you since…"

"Before you go saying anything I may have to reprimand you for, would you please explain why this child is screaming."

"This child" she began, mimicking his arrogant tone of voice, "is your newest arrival, Kiera, and she is screaming and has been screaming for the last three hours, because she is only four days old, and while you were devoting all your time to watching her mother, what you failed to realise was that this child was born an addict! She is screaming because as soon as she woke up her body began craving the drugs she had been getting through her mother for the past nine months."

All the anger had left Carnice now; instead all that was left was a profound sorrow for the screaming baby she held in her arms, a sorrow Jareth now felt too. Cursing himself for his stupidity he took the child and through his magic, removed the addiction from her body. Instantly the baby stopped screaming, a calm descended over her features, and instead of a child screaming in pain, he held a beautiful new born baby girl in his arms.

He saw the tension drain out of Carnice too, the past few hours had been torture watching the little girl go through so much pain. Once again it occurred to him to wonder why the labyrinth had not granted her the power to removed addictions from the children she spent her life caring for. But the labyrinth was a complicated spirit; one could never predict what powers it would bestow on a resident of its kingdom. So instead Jareth altered the spell that kept anyone from reaching him whilst someone was running the Labyrinth, allowing only Carnice to do so, warning her at the same time that she must only do it in the case of an extreme emergency.

That done, he turned his attention to the child in his arms. Kiera. She truly was a beautiful baby, all blue eyes and wispy blond hair. As he reached over to kiss her on the forehead, one of her thin little arms moved in his grasp. Too thin. The only thing that stopped Jareth from harming Amy for what she'd done to this child was the knowledge that she'd overdose within the week. At that moment his thoughts were interrupted by a loud crash from the next room. Immediately Kiera began crying again, but this time it was the normal cry of a startled baby.

Groaning, he handed Kiera back to Carnice and headed for the adjoining room where he knew Amanda's brother was located. As he opened the door, the poker from the fire came swinging at his head, only his Fae reflexes kept him from being harmed. Thrown off balance Jake spun slightly, allowing Jareth to remove the poker from his hands and restrain the boy without too much hassle. Once Jake realized there was nothing more he could do physically, the man who held him was clearly more powerful, he began cursing at the top of his lungs. The names he called Jareth were unrepeatable, but the general gist of his outburst, was that Jareth had no right to keep him there and if he touched so much as a hair on Amanda's head, his life wouldn't be worth living. Jareth couldn't help but laugh at the boy, even though he knew that would only enrage him even more. This was the problem with taking older children, they always thought they were in danger, and caused endless trouble because of it, regardless of the fact that there was obviously nothing they could do to change their situation. Jareth laughed again, which released a whole new torrent of expletives from the boy's mouth, causing Jareth to laugh even louder and proclaim 'do you kiss our mother with that mouth', a phrase he'd heard Aboveground many a time. At that, Jake swung his leg, but with a flick of his wrist Jareth had conjured shackles onto Jake's hands and feet, the momentum of the leg that had meant to kick Jareth, dragging the other leg with it, resulting in Jake falling over.

Seeing the boy so angry and yet helpless brought the usual arrogant smirk to the goblin king's face. He knelt down next to the boy and said "Now, are you going to behave, or do I have to leave you in those shackles until Amanda has completed the Labyrinth?"

At the mention of the Labyrinth Jake immediately stopped struggling and stared at Jareth open mouthed before regaining his wits and asking "The Labyrinth? It's real?"

"Of course it's real silly boy. How else do you explain all this?" Jareth replied, indicating their surroundings.

"Well, er… but then, you must be the Goblin King!"

Chucking, Jareth stood up and held his arms out saying "That's me."

"But then… am I going to be turned into a goblin?" There was real fear in his voice now, gone was the youthful bravado.

"Don't be absurd. No child is ever turned into a goblin, that is simply a tale to try and reduce the number of people running the labyrinth. This way only those who need a serious lesson tend to be wished away… or those whose brothers have seriously pissed them off." Jareth said, chuckling again.

"Amanda…" Jake stated, his eyes becoming downcast.

"Yes, don't worry, she's fine. She'll reach the castle very soon, have no doubt. But now I must leave you to go check on her. So the decision is yours, do I have to leave you in these shackles, or are you going to behave?"

"I'll behave." And Jareth believed him, there was no fight left in him now he understood the situation. It's funny how confusion often led to fear and anger. Jareth removed the shackles from the boy, warning that if he tried anything, Carnice was more than capable of restraining him, before disappearing to see how Sarah was coping.

It was at that moment he heard a bloodcurdling scream…


	11. A manifestation of your true self

**Chapter 11 – A manifestation of your true self**

Sarah, meanwhile, had been getting very agitated. Her job as Goblin Queen was relatively easy, the magic in the crystals told her what to do, how to act, what to say. The dizziness and disorientation after transportation had gone now. But instead, a dull pain had started up all along her spine. She felt slightly light-headed and her entire body tingled, almost like pins and needles, but it was everywhere. She was getting worried now. She'd wanted to contact Jareth but at the same time, she didn't want to bother him if he was busy. He'd trusted this task to her, she didn't want to let him down, make him think she wasn't up to the job. To distract herself from her thoughts, she looked into the last remaining crystal to see how Amanda was progressing through the junkyard. It was almost time to call the guards for the final battle. Sarah couldn't help but wonder though, why Amanda was alone. By the time Sarah had reached the castle she had three friends, whilst, although Amanda had met many creatures on her journey, she had made friends with none of them, neither had they decided to accompany her on he journey. Sarah was unsure whether Amanda's was the rare case, or whether her own was. She suspected it was the latter and resolved to ask Jareth when Amanda had finished her tasks.

At that moment the ache in her back turned into an agonizing pain that ran the entire length of her spine. Sarah dropped the crystal in her hand and fell to her knees screaming in agony.

She could barely breathe and her mind was so consumed by her pain she only realised Jareth was present when she felt him let her go and move away from her rapidly. The pain impossibly increased in intensity and her confusion had hardly registered when she felt a final burst of pain as not only did the fabric of her clothes rip, but so did the skin all the way down her back.

The immediate release from the pain drowned out any other thoughts in Sarah's mind, and all she could do was lay there relishing the numbness that now flowed through her body. Slowly her mind began to focus again and she became aware of Jareth calling her name. She opened her eyes to find him knelt in front of her, but instead of the worry she'd expected to see on his face, she found him smiling. Her confusion growing, she pushed herself up onto her knees and as she did felt something brush her legs. As she reached round to brush it off she found something completely unexpected. Instead of brushing away a stray leaf or petal, she found herself touching the softest silk she'd ever felt. As her fingers brushed against it, they slid down the object smoothly, there was no friction at all. Yet instead of it being thin and flimsy, it was a few millimetres thick, and although supple, it was also incredibly strong. Sarah could almost feel the working of the muscles inside as her body react to her touch and instinctively moved the wings out of the way of her hand. With a gasp of shock Sarah realised she now had wings. Just like the Fae statues she'd seen in Hoggle's garden, she was now a human-sized version of the tiny faeries that had bitten her hand on her first visit to the Labyrinth.

At that moment Jareth dropped to one knee, bowing his head and although Sarah could see his lips moving, she couldn't hear what he was saying. Less than a minute later he stood up and reached an arm down to help Sarah to her feet. There was silence for a few seconds before Sarah asked what he'd been doing.

"Giving thanks to the Labyrinth, you may have only been here a week but clearly you've shown your worth already. Your magic has been bestowed upon you and such an act deserves thanks, even from a king." He paused slightly before continuing. "Sarah, you've been granted one of the highest forms in the Underground, you're on a par with Fae, above them even for your magic is superior. You are a true Faerie."

The power of his words struck pure awe into Sarah's heart, through all their talk of magic it had never seemed real that she herself would actually be blessed with it, never mind being a true Faerie.

"But, I haven't done anything. How can I have proved my worth I've only been here a week and I've done nothing!"

Jareth chuckled before replying, "My dear Sarah, don't you see, you don't need to do anything to prove your worth, it's every little thing you do that shows it. The way you care for the children, the way you've composed yourself throughout Amanda's run of the Labyrinth, the way you treat the staff at the castle and all the creatures of the Underground. You're a true Queen, it's evident in your every action, it doesn't take long for quality like that to shine through. But the manifestation of your powers means something else, it marks you as a true Fae, and also as my betrothed and therefore future Queen."

Once again Sarah was flabbergasted. The thought of her as a queen was so alien to her, her mind couldn't comprehend it. She tried thinking about it logically, she was the partner of the Goblin King, it made sense that in time they'd marry and she'd become queen. Yet her mind kept going back to the childhood fantasy of growing up and being a princess, her logical mind simply could not see that as a reality.

Smiling at the look on his beloved's face Jareth continued, "Don't worry Sarah, you'll have a lot of training before it's time for you to take your role as queen. Right now you need to set Amanda's last task."

Sarah shook her head in a physical effort to clear her thoughts, but as she tried to summon the final crystal to tell her how to set the task nothing happened. She saw Jareth shake his head before saying, "No Sarah, not this time, now it's time for you to set the task." With that, he simply disappeared.

Sarah was left stunned by his words, but almost instantly a calm descended. It seemed she was finally getting used to some of the twists and turns the Labyrinth was throwing at her. She decided the first thing she needed to do was check on Amanda. Holding out her hand she focused her mind on summoning, not a crystal this time, but simply a way in which to view Amanda. She felt a burst of energy shoot through her arm and when she opened her eyes, in her palm was a perfect red rose in full bloom, large enough that it almost covered her full palm. Floating a few inches above the rose was a sphere of light and in this she could see the image of Amanda walking through the goblin city. There was none of the hesitation Sarah had shown when she and her companions made their way through it, only a pure determination that she would win back her brother. Smiling to herself Sarah summoned the goblin army to her side, gave them her instructions and sent them off to delay the girl while she made preparations for the final task. Closing her hand both the rose and sphere of light disappeared and with only a moment's concentration, Sarah had transported herself to the castle, just inside the entrance.

She lost no time in getting to work once there. She knew that Jareth had obviously had the Goblins build a room for Amanda's last task, but as he clearly wasn't going to let her use that room, and there was no time for the Goblins to build the room she had envisioned, she simply had to use magic to create it.

Holding out her palm she once again created a rose with the sphere. Closing her eyes this time she envisioned the corridor in which she was standing in her mind. Slowly she began to change the image, placing a door directly in front of her, and then she began to imagine a room behind it, and changed it to fit the task. As she was envisioning all this she focused her power through her arm and into her sphere of light, channelling her magic to make the vision real, and indeed when she finally opened her eyes she saw before her exactly what she'd seen in her mind. Grinning with pride at what she'd achieved she also noticed that unlike the weariness she'd felt after using Jareth's magic, now that she was using her own she felt only elation in it.

Smiling once more she walked through the door in front of her and sat down on the opposite side of the room to wait for Amanda to appear. She didn't have to wait long, soon enough she heard the doors to the castle open and footsteps running inside seconds before the door to the room she now stood in opened. Amanda ran a few steps into the room before stopping dead. The footpath in front of her disappeared sharply and Amanda barely had time to register this before stopping, almost going over the edge in her shock. The room itself had no floor, simply dropping down into a large circular hole to which there seemed to be no bottom. Sarah stood on the slight ledge at the opposite side of the room and next to her stood Jake, looking composed, but his eyes betrayed the fear he felt for his sisters' safety, stood so close to the edge.

Amanda stared at Jake and then Sarah for a few moments, trying to make up her mind as to what to do next. Yet Amanda wasn't one for thinking things through long, and after less than a minute she began to speak.

"Give him to me."

Sarah laughed a little in response before saying. "You make a demand and yet it comes out as a request. What authority do you have over me that I would just hand him over?"

"Stop it! Just stop it ok! I got here, I fought my way through and I won, now just give him to me!"

Once again Sarah laughed before replying. "Fought you have, long and hard, and yet here you stand, Jake on one side, you on the other. Such a pity that you should fight so long only to fall at the end."

"I will not fall!!!"

"So you say and yet you stand no closer to Jake than you did when you first entered this room. Your voice holds conviction but your actions say nothing. Go home Amanda. Just say the words and that future you so longed for will be yours. Jake will be happy here. You will be happy there. All the troubles you've had will go away, your boyfriend will return, your choice of university's will be yours, and no longer will you have the jealous voice of your brother turning your happiness to pure bitterness. You'll be free Amanda, as will he."

As she'd been speaking Sarah had begun to slowly walk towards Amanda, seemingly walking on air. She'd held out her hand and formed the rose and sphere.

"All you have to do is take it Amanda, take it and all this will go away. You have no power here, no magic. You cannot walk on air like I do. How do you expect to win your brother back?"

For a moment Amanda wavered, for the first time since she'd wished her brother away despair began to set in. The situation presented to her was an impossible one, and after all she'd fought through to get here, to fail right at the end sucked the hope from her and left her broken. Almost unthinkingly she reached out her hand for the sphere. But as she did her eyes flicked to her brother, and the spell of Sarah's words broke. A fierceness came into Amanda's eyes, just as Sarah had known it would. Lowering her hand Amanda looked Sarah straight in the eye, and without even glancing down she simply stepped off the ledge. Sarah had a second to register the shock in Amanda's eyes as she began to fall, before she poured power into the sphere, making it expand and fill the room with a blinding white light. Both Amanda and Jake shut their eyes against the light, and when they opened them found themselves back in their kitchen at home.

Sarah never saw their reunion, never saw the pure joy of their having beaten the Labyrinth. Her part in their tale was done. She'd tested Amanda, tried to break her will, but Amanda had challenged her right back, and in the end she'd found the faith in herself that she needed to take that step towards her goal. Sarah's final test had given her, not only her brother back with a newfound respect and appreciation for him, but it had also shown her that she was a strong individual, and that her future was not out of her hands. Sarah allowed herself a small smile, knowing that Amanda's future now held the happiness that comes from finding it yourself before she felt arms encircle her waist. Smiling even more she leaned back into Jareth's arms, comforted by his presence.

"Well done my pet. It seems the Labyrinth was right, you are indeed meant to be a Queen." Spinning her round to face him Jareth place a finger under Sarah's chin, lifting her face a planting a chaste kiss on her lips. "My Queen." With that he transported them both back to their chamber and all thoughts of Sarah's victory as Goblin Queen went out of both their heads.


	12. Meet the inlaws

**Chapter 12 – Meet the in-laws**

The next morning, as Sarah lay in bed wondering whether to get up and wake Jareth in the process, or simply lay there and relax in his arms, a knock came at the door. Jareth awoke groggily and stared at Sarah in surprise for a few seconds that it wasn't her that had awakened him, before the knock came at the door again and he called out for the goblin to enter. However it wasn't a Goblin that came through the door when it opened, but a Fae male wearing the opulent, brightly coloured, and, in Sarah's opinion, slightly ridiculous looking clothes that marked him as a messenger, although whose messenger, Sarah had no idea.

As the messenger came through the door he made a long low bow to Jareth, followed by a smaller, yet still respectful bow to Sarah. Straightening he began to unfold a scroll and speak.

"Your Majesty King Jareth of the Labyrinth and his betrothed, Lady Sarah, I bid you both welcome to the castle of the High King and Queen a week hence, to announce and celebrate your formal betrothal before the noble courts of the four Kingdoms."

With that he bowed once more in their direction turned on his heel and promptly disappeared. Sarah stared at the place where he'd stood, slightly amused at the whole display, Jareth however hid his face in his hands and gave out a melodramatic groan which caused Sarah to turn to him and giggle.

"Giggle all you will, but all that those pretty words meant was that my parents want to meet you and now they finally have a good excuse."

Such was his theatrical despair that Sarah could not help but laugh once again, causing Jareth to fall back down on the bed, throw the covers over his head and mumble something which Sarah didn't manage to catch the drift of. Instead she lay back down next to him and peered round the covers until she could see her beloved's face.

"Now I'm sure your parents aren't all the bad."

"They're like any parents, protective over their son which means no girl will ever be good enough. Add to that they're the High King and Queen of the underground and they want to meet you surrounded by every important member of said Kingdom and I don't see how you possibly can think it's not all that bad."

A slight frown touched Sarah's forehead. "Every important member?"

"Yes, every noble Fae, Elemental, Animalanis, hell even the noble Goblins will be there!"

"There are noble Goblins?"

Even Jareth had to laugh at that. "No, usually the Goblins hold a lottery between themselves as to who shall attend… of course with all the cheating going on it tends to erupt into a huge brawl and I'm left to chose those who look the least injured to join me."

"Well then why not just choose yourself at the beginning and save all the hassle?"

At this Jareth sat up kissing her lightly on the lips. "Clearly my dear you've not been here long enough. Their attempts at civilized society can keep me entertained for weeks on end." At that he got up and began rummaging through his wardrobe.

Sarah tried to look offended at the thought of the King laughing at his subjects fighting for his favour, but she had to admit that the image of Goblins drawing a lottery then dissolving into fighting was more than just mildly amusing. Still as future Queen…

"Jareth why not let me choose the Goblins to come along?"

"Ha! And have that no good Hogstail following us around all night I think not."

"You know full well what his name is, and he's my friend!"

"And I love you for being so kind hearted, but truly he can be a bore sometimes."

Sarah crossed her arms and pouted at this statement, so put out did she look that Jareth turned away from his wardrobe and knelt in front of her.

"My dear forgive me, invite who you wish. As is custom we're allowed twenty Goblins plus ten Royal Guards to accompany us."

"Royal Guards… aren't they just Goblins?"

Once again Jareth chuckled.

"Yes, but they're Goblins with swords and armour. They can come in handy at times."

"You think we'll need guarding?"

Sarah looked faintly troubled at this prospect. Sensing her unease Jareth pulled her onto his lap.

"No my dear, at this ball we'll be safe. I simply meant that there's always some sibling rivalry at these formal doings, and seeing as I'm… sorry, _we're_ the centre of attention… well it would be nice to have some goblins on guard against any… tricks." Once again he kissed her on the forehead. "That is assuming they can keep their mind on the job for more than five minutes." At that he placed her back on the bed, dressed and walked out of their room.

Almost as soon as Jareth left, Mandana walked into the room from Sarah's room.

"Well Sarah, looks like ya'v got a busy time ahead of ya, we've been lax 'til now, but ya need t' know things before this ball."

"Know things?" Sarah asked confused.

"Well yes. Ya'v got t' learn people's names, and how t' greet people, how t' act at the dinner table and such like. It's not easy bein' in the court o' the High Rulers, but now don't ya look so worried, I'm a good teacher and teach I shall. When ya walk into that ball you'll be the belle all right, I'll see t' that."

Intimidated by the amount of work ahead of her, but comforted by her maid's words, Sarah couldn't help but lean down and hug Mandana, thanking her for all she'd done for her. It seemed to Sarah that after every challenge she faced, another came, and she knew that every victory she'd had was down to the work and support of her friends. Without them she wouldn't be where she was today, and she felt it was time she let them know. The only thing that bothered her was the distinct absence of her old friends, she'd only seen Hoggle once since she'd made the decision to stay, and she hadn't seen the others at all. She made up her mind that the first free minute she had she was going to seek them out, then she was rushed off to her room by Mandana.

The next week was filled constantly with her lessons. From what to wear at what time of day and what order the meals would come in, to the various ranks of noble folk and how to address them so that the higher ranking would not get insulted by being greeted after someone of a lower ranking. The time flew for Sarah as it seemed she didn't have a single second to herself, if she wasn't being given lessons she was going over designs for her new outfits for the trip, or she was holed up in her room going over the volumes of texts on all the noble families.

It was a few days later, as they were laid in bed preparing to sleep, that Sarah asked Jareth about his parents. Jareth's first response was simply to laugh.

"Ah my dearest parents. Well my father is a true King, stern yet fair, a loving father but harsh when he needs to be." At that Jareth stopped and chuckled to himself. "And believe me he's needed to be a lot where I was concerned. Still, he taught me a lot about how to be a good King. The Labyrinth wasn't part of my grandfather's Kingdom, it was my father who took it from the rule of the former King, and my father's lessons helped me incredibly in taming the Labyrinth's spirit. As for my mother… We're far too alike for our own good. She's got a temper to more than match mine, although she has much better control over it. Still we have had some truly explosive arguments, usually down to me accusing her of simply raising me to be the Goblin King and not a son." His head dropped slightly at this. "Sometimes I wish I had a better hold on my temper, but she does rile me so, I guess it's payback for all the trouble I caused as a child. Mostly though she's just a good mother, let's pray this visit is one of my amicable ones."

Sarah didn't find herself comforted by this last bit, she had visions of an evil stepmother type figure hating her on sight. Still, there wasn't much she could do about it now. She felt Jareth begin to fall asleep beside her, and so she began going over in her head all the things she'd learnt about Jareth's family.

He had three brothers, Trea, Sarnoth and Markon, all of whom had their own individual Kingdom's, and a sister, Aladrea, who, being the youngest of a father with only four divisions in his realm, had not been allocated her own land. Instead she lived in her parent's castle until such time as her father stood down as High King and one of his sons took over. At that time Aladrea would take over as Queen of the land of the brother who had become High King, unless of course she herself became High Queen. It had not yet been decided which sibling would take over as ruler of their father's realm.

The four realms of the High King divided according to the dominant race of that region. The majority of Jareth's subjects were goblins, making him the Goblin King. Markon was the King of the Animalanis, the many races of creatures with the ability to transform into an animal. Sarah had heard legends of such creatures Aboveground, but as no more than horror stories. Werewolves, a twisted tale made out of truly beautiful creatures. All Animalanis' had the ability to change into their creature at will, the creature was not chosen, instead when their powers were bestowed upon them by the source of power of their kingdom, they would gain their animal form. Their personality would call to a creature of similar, but balancing traits and that is the animal they will, from that day forward, have the ability to become. The wolf was a popular creature for an Animalanis, as a race they tended to be quiet, reserved creatures; the wolf gave them an outlet for their anger and frustrations, a balance to their peaceful nature. There were others with fiery tempers, whose animal tended to be a calmer creature; Jareth was a perfect example of this, with his animal being an owl.

Jareth's mother had been an Animalanis, yet of her five children, only Jareth had the ability to take animal form. It would have seemed logical to transfer the rule of the Animalanis to Jareth, had he not been the frustratingly mischievous child he had been. It was thought that a few years in the rule of the equally mischievous goblins would make him take on responsibility and groom him to become a worthy king of the larger realm. This had not been the case however. As a king, Jareth surpassed anyone's expectations. He had conversed with the goblins, taken time to learn their ways, and through that had become a truly amazing king. What no one had anticipated was his control over the Labyrinth. No previous king had ever been able to command the power of the Labyrinth. All Fae had an intrinsic magical ability, but the power Jareth was able to wield through the labyrinth was phenomenal. As a result he had happily remained as the Goblin King.

Sarnoth's subjects were mostly elementals; the earth elementals; Gnomes, the air elementals; Sylphs, the water elementals; Undines and the fire elementals; Salamanders, earning him the name of Elemental King. The Gnomes were small human-like creatures, typically they wouldn't even reach knee-height on a human, and yet they were very resilient creatures. They were incredible builders, had even built the High King's castle, although they preferred to build underground. They had tremendous cave systems, leading to enormous caverns and intricate passageways to confuse and lose unwelcome visitors. Throughout time there have been many similarities between Gnomes and Goblins, their small stature, their ability to build and their gnarled brown skin. Yet for all their similarities, the two races might well be at war were it not for the peacekeeping and separation efforts put in place by the High King. Goblins and Gnomes were often mistaken for each other, and in their eyes there was no higher insult. No one really knew the origin of the feud between the two races, but it was one that had led to bloodshed many a time in the past. Since Jareth had become the Goblin King though, the Goblins had become more peaceful, more content to just let the Gnomes be, the Goblins were happier now, they had been given a purpose by Jareth, they felt useful again. The older Goblin Kings had simply let people run the Labyrinth, not taken any interest in them, Jareth was different, he tailored each run to the individual, this required a lot of building, for which the Goblins were grateful, it was a chance to prove to the Gnomes how good they were. So for now there was peace between the two races.

The Sylphs were non-corporeal beings of the air. They could choose to be visible or not and although they didn't control the weather, they could certainly influence it should their emotions be heightened enough for them to control the magic required to do so.

The Undines were water creatures, unable to live on land for long periods of time unless they fell in love with a creature of the land. They were immortal creatures, but if they bore a child by any creature other than another Undine, they would lose their immortality and begin to age at the same rate their spouse and child did, thus sparing them the heartache of seeing those they loved grow old and die whilst they remained eternal.

The last of the four elementals were the Salamanders. Although Salamanders were their primary form, they could also become pure fire, and thus take any shape they wanted.

The landscape of the Elemental Kingdom was extremely varied, one minute vast lakes, the next, scorched deserts, followed by green hills hiding thousands of Gnomes in their underground cities. The land changed constantly as one elemental would take over, only to be usurped itself not long after. As such it was easy to get lost if you weren't familiar with the territory. It was a hard Kingdom to run, with the elementals alternately at war and peace with each other, but Sarnoth was a capable King, and kept the land at peace more often than not. Even when at war, Sarnoth was good at keeping the disputes to a minimum, compromise was his strength and he used it to its full power. As such, the Kingdom was generally pleasant and highly thought of by creatures of other the realms.

Trea, as the oldest, he had been given the realm of the Fae, the nobility of the underworld. His subjects were immortal creatures of the race he and his family were born of. Never truly immortal of course, but the average Fae reached an age of four digits, and illness and infections that affected mortals had no power over the Fae. Regal beings, all, and Trea as their King was the very image of perfection. To his court he was fair and just, a being of superior intellect and utmost power. To his family however, he was spoilt, constantly whining about the pathetic state of affairs he was faced with daily. He felt detached from his people, never sympathetic to their plights, simply fulfilling his obligations through a sense of duty to his father. He had no compassion, and no real love for his subjects. It was for this reason, that although a clear favourite for ascension to his father's throne in the eyes of his people, to his father he was too heartless to become absolute ruler over all four domains. This fact was clear to all but Trea, who, through the constant praise of his people, believed himself a firm choice as heir to the throne. Of course the Underground and Aboveground weren't the only two domains, there were whole other worlds that Sarah had yet to learn of, but by that point in the night she was exhausted and her brain finally gave in to the pull of sleep.

_Author's Note: just a note to wish everyone a Merry Christmas _

_Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed, its you guys that keep me writing, as always all comments, even negative are appreciated, it all helps improve my writing!_

_Happy Holidays!!!!_


	13. Lessons and lists

**Chapter 13 – Lessons and lists**

Sarah's lessons kept her busy over the last few days before the visit. Her vow to visit her friends went clean out of her head until the day before they were due to leave for the High Ruler's castle and Jareth asked for the names of the twenty goblins and ten guards they were taking with them. So shocked was Sarah by her lapse of memory that she dropped the quill she'd been using to write out Jareth's family tree in order to study it further on the journey. Jareth, leaning lazily against the door frame, chuckled at her before saying.

"See now this is why I just leave them to fight it over."

"Oh Jareth don't mock me, I've still got a few things to memorize before we leave tomorrow and now I've got to find thirty goblins as escorts."

"We've still got time for their lottery…" Jareth said trying to be helpful.

"No I said I'd do it, and so I shall."

"Well just don't invite Hoghead."

"It's Hoggle and well you know it, now leave me in peace so I can write out a list of those to come with us."

Laughing quietly Jareth went back to his library. Sarah's preoccupation with court manners had given him time to search for his answers but even he'd had many preparations for their trip. His time had been restricted and so he still hadn't found what he was looking for. Time was growing short now. He figured he'd be required to stay at his parents for a week to fulfil all the social obligations. Cursing himself for staying away from court so long Jareth threw himself into his now familiar chair and picked another book off the never ending pile.

Histories of the Labyrinth, law books, courtesy guides between Kingdom's, he'd searched them all, yet he'd found no way to get out of Gerard's invitation without inviting open war, nor had he found the heart to tell Sarah about… well tell her what she needed to know to survive the visit. His heart pounded in fear every time he thought of what she would see there, but only a few minutes later a goblin came scurrying in telling him there was a problem with the carriage that would take them to the High castle. Jareth threw the book down in frustration and transported himself to the stables, all thoughts of Gerard gone from his mind for the time being.

Sarah meanwhile was torn. At first the list had been easy. Hoggle, Sir Didymus, Ludo, Samael and Devon would of course make up half the guards, but what of the rest. Sarah knew barely any of the goblins, and the ones she did know were service staff, they were no good as guards. After a few minutes of thinking she slapped her head in disbelief that she'd forgotten to put Mandana down as an escort, and of course Saaled, Jareth's personal page. She wanted to put down Carnice but she knew that she was needed here for the children. At that point she was at a loss, she simply didn't know the goblins well enough to know which were reliable. She spent almost an hour staring at the five guards and two escorts before a thought hit her. Smiling to herself, she produced a rose sphere and summoned Martijn to her chamber. The boy stared around him in shock at first, unbelieving that he was in Lady Sarah's own private chamber. Eventually he regained his senses enough to greet her.

"He- hello Lady Sarah."

"Now Martijn, what did I tell you about calling me Lady Sarah when it's just us two."

He smiled at that, once more completely at ease. "Sorry, Sarah."

"That's better. Now Martijn, I suppose you've heard about this ball me and Jareth are going to." The goblin boy nodded his head in response. "Well Jareth's asked me to pick out ten guards and twenty escorts, only I don't really know anyone here. Here come look at the list I've got and then you can tell me who is trustworthy enough to be added."

Grinning with pride Martijn did just as she said and they spent the next half hour discussing various options for the entourage. Eventually Sarah sat back content that she'd made a decent list. As she looked at Martijn she realised he was glowing with delight at having been asked to help in such an important task, yet Sarah still wanted to do something to thank him. Quickly drawing a new sheet of paper Sarah began to write a note to Martijn's father, telling him that she wished a picnic area to be erected in the garden that used to be the bog of eternal stench. She wanted to take some of the children there sometimes and wanted a safe area for them to play in. She also made sure to mention that for his excellent service to the future Queen of the Labyrinth, Martijn was to be rewarded by being able to help in the building. She guessed the building itself would be quite easy and safe, and so Martijn's father would have no reason to object. When she told Martijn of what the letter said his face could barely contain his smile and although he tried to stammer out his thanks, Sarah had to tell him he was welcome and send him on his way before he lost his senses altogether.

Smiling she stood up and went to get ready for bed when she realised Jareth stood in the doorway, once again lounging against the doorframe.

"You give those goblins far too much of your time." He said smiling leisurely.

Smiling in return Sarah stood up and began to brush her long raven hair. "And you give them so little. You really should spend more time with your subjects, you'd be surprised at what you discover."

At this Jareth grinned and began walking towards her. "Now why would I want to spend time with them when I've got you?" He said, putting his arms around her shoulders. "You're much more fun." And with that he kissed her deeply before going off to prepare himself for bed as well.

"I've finished the list anyway." Sarah said, indicating the paper. Jareth groaned dramatically before striding over and reading it. He groaned again before saying "Sarah, we're going to visit the High King and Queen of the Underground and you want to take Ludo along?"

"And why not, he's my friend, and you said armed guards might come in handy, who's going to try anything with Ludo there?"

"Good point, but Samael? He's a halfwit, hardly likely to scare anyone."

"He's not a halfwit, he's simply childlike. Anyway I doubt you've ever taken any of your subjects that weren't pure goblin, it might do some good to show a variety of your subjects."

Jareth shook his head before chuckling at the paper. "Sir Didymus?"

"A noble knight and essential to our retinue, both as a guard and a proper escort."

"I'm not even surprised to see Hogshead here." He paused reading a few more names. "Well done on thinking to bring our personal attendants… but these other names, how did you come about them?"

"That would be Martijn."

"You trust a goblin child to give you good advice?"

"And why not? Is there anything wrong with any of those names?"

"True, but then again no goblin is better than any other, only one things for certain, with so many goblins, there will be mischief…" He broke off at that, chuckling to himself, no doubt at the memory of some past turmoil caused by his goblins. Sarah started to ask then decided that she probably didn't want to know, so went back to the process of readying for bed. It was only as she lay awake later that night that she realised the importance of the next day's events. She would be meeting the High King and Queen of the Underground, her only superiors once she became Queen, and more than that, Jareth's parents. Her last thought as she drifted off to sleep was, "I hope they like me…"


	14. First Impressions

**Chapter 14 – First impressions**

Unusually it was Jareth who woke first the next morning. He was clearly agitated, possibly even nervous, although Sarah would never have pointed this out to his face. She awoke to the sound of him rifling through his wardrobe trying to find something suitable for greeting his parents in. Over and over again he'd pull something out, put it against himself, look in the mirror and then throw it over his shoulder in disgust to have it disappear as soon as it touched the floor. Not really understanding the source of his frustration but feeling the need to help Sarah slid out of bed and padded over to him. She placed her hands on his shoulders and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek before sidling around him and looking into the wardrobe. After a few minutes deliberation she pulled out a pair of steel blue breeches, a white shirt with minimum frill down the front, and a velvet jacket, a shade darker than the breeches, which was fitted around the torso but flowed full length to his feet. Putting them in his arms she kissed him once more before drifting off to her own room to dress and prepare.

After she'd left, Jareth stood holding the clothes in his arms, marvelling at the change in the girl he loved in the few short weeks she'd been with him. No more was the sulking teenager, nor the troubled young adult, now she was a woman, and he knew, without any doubt, she would make a wonderful queen.

Sarah meanwhile had no trouble dressing herself. She walked into her room to find Mandana laying out a dress on Sarah's bed, a bed she'd never slept in. Smiling Sarah walked over and wordlessly Mandana began to dress her. Due to the formality of the occasion her maid had picked out a traditional gown of pale blue, the same colour as the clothes Sarah had just picked out for Jareth, but in a pastel tone. The dress was floor length, tapered at the waist, flatteringly cut, yet modest, with long flowing sleeves and a V-cut waistline. When Sarah saw herself in the mirror she was stunned at the vision presented to her. She looked like a medieval princess, but the transformation wasn't finished.

Mandana sat her down at the vanity and began to pin up her hair, to form a curled bunch on her head, with curling tendrils down to cover her neck, decorated with thin ribbon and flowers of the same colour as her dress. The make-up was minimal, yet when she walked back into the bedroom she shared with Jareth he was stunned into silence. They both knew they had reached a turning point, the events of today could well shape their whole life, and although Sarah could not understand the full import of the occasion, she was aware there was change in the air, and they would not know for a while whether it was for better or worse.

Wordlessly Jareth offered his arm, Sarah took it and together they walked out through the castle to the carriage waiting just outside the door. The carriage itself reminded Sarah of a dark version of Cinderella's carriage. The decoration on it was just as grand, but it was made out of dark Mahogany wood. However it was what was harnessed to the front of the carriage that caught Sarah's attention. Waiting patiently stood four winged horses. They stood taller by half than the normal horses of Aboveground, and their coats had almost an iridescent sheen to them. The wings were huge and feathered, and Sarah could imagine them being as soft as down. Gently she felt Jareth move his arm, indicating it was time to leave, so reluctantly Sarah turned away from the amazing creatures and stepped regally into the carriage. The inside of the carriage was just as splendidly decorated as anything Jareth possessed. The seats were covered in black leather and black velvet curtains were drawn back over the windows. Small lamps in the corners of the roof to provide light should it be night, or the curtains closed. The lamps were held in place by an intricate design of wooden roses that seemed to shine red in the light, and there were real roses strew about the carriage. Settling herself she turned to look at Jareth with a smile on her lips. In answer he leaned in and placed his lips to hers, before signalling out the window that they were ready to leave.

There was no jerk as the horses leapt into the air, taking the carriage with them, only a smooth lifting sensation. As Sarah looked out of the window she could see the ground disappearing and soon she had a view of the entire Labyrinth from above. The sight was breathtaking, she'd had no idea how huge it was, with so many different parts to it. Yet all too soon the carriage went up through the clouds and the view was lost. Sarah settled back into the seat and spent the rest of the journey going over her notes of etiquette, names and formalities.

Jareth meanwhile sat in silence, brooding over how Sarah would be treated on this trip. She may be Fae now, but she was once a mortal, and there would be some who would see a human being granted one of the highest Fae states as an insult. All he could hope was that Sarah was as strong as he knew she could be, and that she would bear their remarks with a calm composure. If not, well the goblins would no doubt be able to… distract the gossiping noble Fae for most of the trip.

Hours passed on their journey, flying over the vast Labyrinth and its miles of surrounding wilderness. Sarah was so absorbed in her studies she never once glanced out the window and the hours seemed like mere minutes until they arrived at the High Ruler's castle in the small area of land bound by their son's four Kingdoms. As the carriage landed as smoothly as it had taken off, Sarah put away her papers and prepared herself. A footman of the castle opened the door and offered his hand to help Sarah out. She took it gently and gracefully descended, waiting a few seconds for Jareth to exit, then she took his arm and together they followed the footman up the steps into the castle.

It took all of Sarah's self-control to stop her mouth from gaping at the pure splendour assaulting her senses. Gone was the gaudy opulence of Jareth's taste. Here elegance reigned. The castle itself was the colour of ivory. Instead of medieval towers, this castle was more smooth, more enchanted looking, the gleam of the stone blending in with the hundreds of windows dotted seemingly randomly over the front of the castle which seemed to go on forever. Sarah had a few scant seconds to take in the exterior before they were led through the marble front doors. Inside her elegant heels clicked on tiles made of crystal, but closer inspection showed carved designs of graceful lines that seemed to be letters, but they were of no language Sarah had ever seen. Jareth caught her looking at them and whispered they were spells of protection, written in the very stones of the castle. To protect those within from any harm, to bring a calm and peaceful atmosphere and encourage harmony. Puzzled Sarah asked why they were allowed guards if no harm could be wrought, to which Jareth simply shrugged and answered that it was tradition.

At the far end of the corridor stood another marble door. The footman stopped before the doors and held onto the handles. They heard their names being announced from the other side and suddenly the footman swung the doors inward. At the same time Jareth began walking forward and Sarah almost stumbled in the effort to keep stride with him. However as they walked though the doors into a gleaming white and pearl throne room, they were the picture of grace and beauty.

At the far end of a cream cloth carpet sat two thrones on a dais, upon which the High King and Queen sat. As Sarah and Jareth walked up the carpet, surrounded by creatures of all races on either side, Sarah had a few seconds to study the royal pair. The High King wore a pair of ivory coloured trousers and down the front of each leg were embroidered images of a host of different animals in silver thread. The shirt and waistcoat he wore were similarly embroidered but this time the images were of the four forms of elementals. He wore a cream coloured cloak which had goblins and the various creatures of the Labyrinth sewn on them, and finally on the front of his silver crown was engraved a tiny Faery to represent the Fae. Four designs. Four Kingdoms. A visual representation of his vast domain. His Queen sat next to him in a similar outfit, though she wore an ivory dress embroidered with Animalanis on the skirt, and elementals on the bodice. She wore a similarly goblin embroidered cloak and her smaller, more delicate crown also bore a Faery engraving. Together they made a picture of pure regality, their faces, beautiful to Sarah for more than just their Fae blood, sombre yet not unkind.

She did not have long to dwell on these thoughts though, as they had reached the steps to the Dais and she made a low curtsey in time to Jareth's bow. As they rose, they were once again announced thus:

"King Jareth, ruler of the Labyrinth, son of the High King, and his betrothed, Lady Sarah of the Faeries, daughter of the mortal world."

Hearing the last part Jareth's arm tensed around her hand. Sarah knew the reference to her having been mortal would not go down with some Fae, but she was too nervous about the pair in front of her she had no chance to think of it. Beckoning with one hand for them to rise, the High King began to speak.

"King Jareth, Lady Sarah, we bid you welcome to our castle and offer our congratulations on your betrothal. May you celebrate here in front of your family and friends, and may you find peace and happiness here and for the rest of your lives."

For a second there was silence until the sombre look on the High King's face broke into a smile.

"Welcome home son."

At that the formal greeting was ended. Jareth let go of Sarah striding up the steps of the dais to hug both of his parents before beckoning Sarah to follow him. She did so with trepidation but a confidence grown from the smiles of Jareth's parents as they gazed at her walking towards them.

"Father, mother, may I introduce Sarah."

Sarah gave them another small curtsy of greeting before Jareth's mother held her hand out and leaned forward to kiss Sarah on the cheek and to receive Sarah's kiss on her own.

"Sarah, meet my delightfully charming mother Saliene, who will no doubt whisk you away for the entire time I'm here to sew and gossip all day."

"Now Jareth, you know full well I don't gossip. It is simply my duty as High Queen to know all the news of our kingdoms." His mother replied with a small on her lips.

"Call it news if you will, but I hardly see how Lady Mariannsa's affair with Lord Corsan could be essential to the survival of the Kingdom's." Jareth said with a chuckle. Then he turned to his father and said, "And this is my father Parthenon."

At this Sarah did another little curtsy and the High King reached out and gave her a slight kiss of her hand.

"Delighted child, and I must congratulate you again, not on your betrothal, but on your achievement of staying with this rascal for as long as you have, truly it can be a task at times."

It was said in good humour but obviously hinted at the torment Jareth had provided as a child.

"Now father I'm wounded, I am nothing if not a true gentleman and I will not have you belittle me this way." Jareth was doing his best to look offended but his eyes still sparkled with the jest.

"Ha, spoken from the same mouth that moments earlier exposed an illicit affair between two rather prominent nobles in your brother's Kingdom. Gentleman you are not Jareth, yet neither are you nothing. To be betrothed to a woman like this you must truly be something."

Sarah blushed at the compliment, please that she'd managed to give a good first impression, even though she hadn't spoken one word yet, a situation she must rectify.

"Thank you Your Majesty, and thank you for giving me such a warm welcome. It is true your son can be less than a gentleman at times, but he is truly a gentle man, and I do love him. To have your blessing for this betrothal is an honour."

"Nonsense child. Our thanks go out to you for taking this rogue off our hands." Parthanon said laughing. "Nevertheless this greeting has gone on long enough, you must be half starved after your long journey, Sesas will show you to your rooms where you can freshen up and then he will lead you to the dining room for your official betrothal dinner."

Once again Sarah gave a small curtsy, to which Saliene laughed a charming little chime of a laugh and told her that as her future daughter there was no need for Sarah to be curtsying anymore, and then they followed the footman into their chamber.

"Well that went well." Jareth said, lounging on the bed.

"You think they like me?" Sarah asked, still slightly nervous despite their warm greeting.

"Darling, those two have been known to throw some of my brothers' so called 'betrothed' in the dungeon before now, the reception you just got means they not only approve of you but they like you. You should be proud of yourself."

"That's not entirely comforting you know."

Smiling wickedly Jareth waved Sarah over to the bed then pulled her down with him when she got there. He kissed her deeply, making her forget all her doubts before saying, "Relax Sarah, no doubt my parents have had my servants spying on us for them, they will have made their mind up on you long before you got here. The greeting out there was to show us both that they approve, and to show everyone in the four Kingdoms that you are to be a future Queen and that no one may disapprove nor cause you trouble." Once again he kissed her before continuing. "It's now official, you are to be my wife, and the Goblin Queen. But now," he said, rising from the bed and helping Sarah up, "it is time to dress for dinner."

"Dinner, but it's lunchtime?"

Jareth laughed before saying, "The Labyrinth and the lands surrounding this castle are further than you think, and the borders are more than just lines in the sand. Passing them isn't an easy thing and time gets a bit distorted sometimes, in this case time passed more quickly and it is early evening now, so I'm afraid we've missed lunch."

At that Jareth got up and went to the wardrobe, this time not needing to search for an outfit, simply finding only one hanging there and putting it on. The colour was a much darker blue than his previous outfit but had silver embroidery running through it. The pants were less fitting, the shirt less frilly and the coat longer than his usual jacket, though shorter than the one he'd worn earlier. The riding boots that he always wore he kept, but overall he had a more dashing and traditional looking outfit.

Sarah glanced around the room but could see no other wardrobes, or any doors indicating an adjoining room, so instead she walked over to the same wardrobe Jareth had used and wasn't surprised to see an evening dress hanging there. It was the same colour as Jareth's and again had silver embroidery. Yet it wasn't the only thing in the wardrobe, hanging next to it was a corset. Having worn corsets before on nights out Sarah wasn't too daunted by it, but she knew she would need more than Jareth's help to get her into it properly. She'd just turned around to ask Jareth if there was some way to call Mandana when there was a knock on the door. Grinning to himself Jareth went to open it and Mandana herself walked it. Smiling once more Jareth winked at Sarah, made her a mock bow and left without a word.

"Well at least that scoundrel knows some manners. Ya aint his wife yet and in his parents castle he's got no call t' be watching ya dress. Now, lets get ya into that dress shall we."

Glad that she'd had the foresight to bring Mandana along Sarah grinned and then began the harsh task of having a corset properly laced. Knowing they were going to dinner Mandana didn't tie the corset as tight as she usually would, but Sarah could still feel the strain on her ribs as she breathed. However when she got into the dress she knew it was worth it. The neckline was a heart-shaped V and was extremely flattering. The sleeves were small and off the shoulder and her exposed flesh along with the corset induced waistline made her a vision. Almost as if he'd been spying on them Jareth walked into the room as soon as Mandana had finished taking Sarah's hair down into a less formal style. Sarah stood and turned to face him and the shock was evident on his face. Gone was the child Sarah had been, gone was the innocence, there was no doubting now that Sarah was a woman. So stunned was he that when he finally regained his composure he knelt on one knee in front of Sarah and kissed her hand, whispering up to her as he did, "You are my Queen."

Sarah couldn't help but smile and blush simultaneously.

"There's just one more thing you need… wings."

With a thought Sarah created a rose sphere and closing her eyes for just a second created a hole in the back of the dress for the wings to go through, and then brought her wings into existence. Jareth stood and held out his arm for Sarah to take. As they began to walk out of the room he leaned towards her and whispered, "Today they met my betrothed, tonight they meet my Queen."


	15. Familial Acceptance

**Chapter 15 - Familial acceptance **

As Sarah walked down the corridor to the main dining room she felt more than a little apprehensive. She'd made a good impression on Jareth's parents, but now she would have to meet his brothers and sister, not to mention an awful lot of nobles of the various races. When they reached the double doors to the ballroom they found them open, and this time there was no herald to announce their arrival. Instead they simply walked into the dining room to find a long table in the shape of a horseshoe. It was made so that in the middle of the horseshoe the table rose up a few steps for a straight portion, and it was here that the royal family sat.

Two large thrones in the centre marked the High King and Queen's chairs, with eight chairs, smaller yet still more opulent than the general populations chairs, surrounding them, four on either side. All the chairs were made out of ivory, the High Rulers thrones having veined marble backs and arms to make them stand out. The table was marble with a white cloth, and all the cutlery, plates and table decorations were silver. The room itself provided a huge contrast to the table and its settings. The floor was made of wood, not the laminate floors Sarah was used to Aboveground, but one huge piece of wood that spanned the enormous dinning room. Sarah was sure there was no tree that large, and yet she could not see a single crease to indicate where separate pieces of wood were joined. As she glanced at Jareth he subtly created a tiny crystal in his hand then immediately made it vanish. The gesture was small but obvious. Magic. The walls were made of a similar but lighter wood and had carved figures covering it, though Sarah never got the chance to have a close look at the carvings at they walked around the horseshoe to the raised centre.

The High King and Queen were already sat, dressed in the same clothes as they had greeted Sarah and Jareth in as tradition demanded. Sat to Parthenon's right was a male who was the pure opposite of Jareth. Where Jareth was light and fair-haired with blue eyes, this Fae was olive skinned, with jet-black hair and dark brown eyes. Where Jareth was slight yet toned, this male was a lot more bulky. And as Jareth's face was a mask of happiness, the face of this male held malice. As they were walking towards the Royals Jareth quietly began telling Sarah who they were. The male she was looking at was Jareth's eldest brother Trea, King of the Fae. Not liking the malevolent stare the Trea was giving her, Sarah looked at the female next to him. In comparison she was tiny, a delicate Fae woman, not much over five foot tall from the look of her, with blood red hair and eyes. Her skin had a delicate pink tinge to it in comparison to the surrounding Fae's pale skin. Her clothing was also red, not that there was much of it, a stretch of material covered her breasts and although her bottom half was hidden by the table, Sarah could imagine she wasn't wearing much there either.

"That's Trea's most recent betrothed. His betrothals don't tend to last more than a few months, he thinks if he settles down my father will hand him his throne, yet after only a few months he gets bored and starts searching for another future ex. This one's name is Sesal, she's a flower faery, one of the minor Fae, my brother dearest seems to be slummin' it at the moment." Jareth whispered with a sly grin on his face. "Next to her is Markon and his wife Kalec."

Neither of these two looked anything but pure Fae. Both had pale, almost illuminescent, skin with striking blue eyes. Their clothes were soft pastel shades, Markon's suit almost looking like something her father would have worn to special occasions, other than the pale green colour of it. Kalec was incredibly pretty and as her eyes caught Sarah's she gave her a small smile of welcome. Her simple muslin dress was of a similar shade of green to Markon's but the cuffs of the sleeves and the hem of the neckline were trimmed with fur, an indication, Jareth said of their status as Rulers of the Animalanis.

Sat to the side of Saliene was a man who almost looked human were it not for his eyes which were the colour of pure gold. Next to him was a slight young woman dressed in a dress of various colours of green and blue that seemed to shift through the fabric. Her skin seemed almost translucent and her eyes were not the bright blue of Fae.

"That would be Sarnoth, King of the Elementals and his wife Raecene, she was an undine, but they fell in love, married and eventually she bore his child, so now she's a Fae, not doomed to live a short life and die like she would if she mated with a mortal, but instead she can stand to live on land. As an undine it was painful for her to be out of water for long lengths at a time."

They'd almost reached the table when Sarah realised someone was missing.

"Jareth, where is Aladrea."

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jareth grimace before he said, "As usual she had decided not to attend, no doubt she'll join us for dancing later but who she'll be with only the Gods can tell."

With that bitter comment they reached the dais. Bowing to the High King and Queen, Jareth pulled out the end chair on the dais and Sarah curtseyed to the Royal pair before taking her seat, allowing Jareth to take his seat between his betrothed and Raecene. Once they were seated Parthanon got to his feet and made a short speech.

"Nobles of the Underground, I welcome you to this feast with a happy heart. It is with great pleasure that I can announce that our youngest son Jareth has betrothed himself to the Lady Sarah of Aboveground. With the breaking of bread at this table, before all your eyes, the betrothal with be formalized."

A silence greeted the High King as he took his seat and picked up a roll of bread laid before him. Breaking it in two he offered one half to his wife who took a dainty little bite. Out of the other half he took a large bite, before they both placed the bread on a tray the serving page held between them. The page then hurried down the table and placed the tray between Sarah and Jareth. Each took a piece and took a bite, then laid the bread back down. Once this was done the High King stood once again and announced "The betrothal is now complete, let everyone in this room, and all within the Underground witness this binding."

There was not even a whisper in the room as Parthanon took his seat again, but as he took his first bite of the roast fowl laid in front of him, so the rest of the room took it as their sign to begin eating and the feast began. The table was laden with roast fowl, roast pig, stewed beef, and a whole manner of cooked meats Sarah couldn't identify, but wasn't afraid to try what little amounts her corset would allow. Strewn in between the meat dishes were plates full of fruit and the various vegetables of both Aboveground and Below, along with numerous gravy boats filled with a whole host of sauces.

Due to the bindings of her corset Sarah couldn't eat much, but what she did eat was luscious. It seemed as though the taste of everything was amplified. The meats were cooked to perfection, the sauces had a tang that made them irresistible, the fruit was perfectly ripe and their juices set her mouth on fire with their taste. Sarah had never tasted food like it and she was partially glad of the corset, without it she would have glutted herself, and that was not the image she wanted to give her future in-laws.

During the meal Sarah got talking to the Lord that was sat next to her, a step down from her table. Lord Lenea was a Faery just like herself and he lived in the Fae realm. She learnt from him that the wings were strong enough to fly with, though she could fly without them, using magic. Her wings were extraordinarily strong, and had a magical barrier to protect them, but they could be pierced if an attacker had enough magic and they could take weeks to heal. Lord Lenea also invited her to visit him and his clan in the Fae realm, to meet other Faery's and learn about the Fae she had become. Happy that she seemed to have been accepted by some Fae at least, and feeling as if she really belonged in this world, Sarah turned to glance around the huge table at the other seated guests.

The goblin subjects were sat right at the end of the horseshoe, as far away from the Royals as possible, Sarah knew that Goblins were seen as the lowest of the Underground creatures, yet she was still a little upset that her friends were made to sit at the other end of the hall to her. It was at that moment as she was looking around the table that she realised something else about the goblins, how few there were. There were around four hundred individuals sat at the vast table, and Jareth had only been allowed to bring thirty subjects. The majority of the others were Fae, yet she could see at least a hundred elements, and almost as many Animalanis.

She mentioned the fact to Jareth who merely laughed.

"My dear, it is with great persuasion that I'm allowed to bring goblins here at all, they're not the most calm of races and I'm afraid they have a tendency to make a mess, both of the castle and the people here. Any more than thirty and there could well be a riot."

Sarah could see his point, whereas all the other creatures sat at the table were eating cleanly, the goblins were thoroughly enjoying their food and as a result a good amount of it ended up on the table and the floor. As for their troublesome nature… well she had yet to see the full extent of it, but she could well imagine that to the noble Fae it was rather undesirable.

Due to the arrangement of the table Sarah could only really talk to Jareth or Lord Lenea, so she continued her conversation with the Faery, learning more about her new form. She learnt that her visualization of magic, the rose and sphere, represented the two sides of her. The rose represented the Faery side of her, and the choice of rose showed her vibrant personality, her true inner beauty, though every rose has thorns, and so too had Sarah. She had her dark side. Immediately her thoughts strayed back to the despair that had threatened to engulf her Aboveground. Although it hadn't touched her since she'd begun living in the Labyrinth, she could feel it at the edge of her mind, a black shadow that could so easily take over once again if she let it. But right now she felt strong, it was no more than a shadow, and although she had doubts as to whether she could hold it off forever, at the moment her only pain came from thoughts of Toby and her father.

Shaking off these dark thoughts she turned her attention back to Lord Lenea. He was explaining that the sphere represented the other side of her, the goblin side, that side that was linked to her Goblin King. He was her other half and so it was appropriate that her magic should in part represent his. When Sarah enquired as to whether Jareth's magic would come to represent her Lord Lenea chuckled before saying that Jareth was a King, and with that position came a certain arrogance, he was unlikely to change much about himself, and there was very little chance of him altering his magic, after all, it's hard to juggle with flowers. Sarah couldn't help but laugh at this image, and she found herself growing fond of Lord Lenea. Although he looked as if he was in his mid-thirties, she knew from her studies that he was over a thousand years old. The way he spoke to her reminded her of her granddad, and the new clan bond of the Faeries made him a granddad of sorts with him being the elder of the entire clan. The smile he gave her was a grandfatherly one and she felt at peace once again, gone were all thoughts of her thorns.


	16. A mortal's transition

**Chapter 16 – A mortal's transition**

After the meal was finished the High King and Queen stood without speaking. The King took the Queen's right hand in his left and they both held their free hand out over the table. Instantly the table shimmered and then disappeared. Sarah managed to steel her face, but inside she was awed by what she had just witnessed. Then she felt Jareth reach for her hand just as the High King and Queen made their way down the steps of the dais. The other Royal couples followed them in a line, Sarah and Jareth coming last as Jareth was the youngest of the children that were present.

As they walked into the centre of the room Sarah began to hear music and she noticed a small orchestra had appeared in the far corner of the room. Once they reached the centre the High King and Queen started the traditional first dance of the night. The other Royal couples joined them and soon the nobles began to join in as well. It wasn't long before the floor was full of dancing couples.

Out of the corner of her eye Sarah caught sight of two male goblins dancing together not far from her and Jareth. They looked like children mimicking their parents, dancing round in huge elaborate circles. However it wasn't long before their boisterous dancing led them to bump into a pair of noble Fae. The look the Fae gave the goblins was murderous and Sarah saw the male lift his hand and point it at the goblins. The hand began to glow blue and Sarah could feel the shift of power in the air that said magic was going to be used. Without thinking she summoned her own power and transported herself between the goblins and the noble Fae, placing a shield around her and her subjects as she did so. The noble Fae gasped in shock as his blue flame of magic hit the shield and disintegrated. The look of anger replaced his shock as he began to direct his menace towards Sarah. However his rage was mirrored in Sarah and as he began to open his mouth to speak Sarah interrupted him.

"If the next words out of your mouth are not an apology then I would advise you not to speak at all. How dare you use magic on my subjects who you know have very little magic of their own?"

Incredibly the fury in the Fae increased at the way Sarah spoke to him.

"I dare because I am a noble Fae and those things are not worthy to be in this great hall let alone to touch my person and interrupt my dance with my wife!"

"A Fae you may be but I have my doubts about the noble part. No person with any noble nature in them would use magic against someone who is defenceless. In my opinion it is these goblins who are the nobles for they would never harm any creature who did not intend to do them harm, and it is you who are a mere _thing_ for being such a coward!"

"How dare you speak to me this way, you, a mortal?"

"A mortal I once was but not anymore. The wings on my back and the magic that is holding yours at bay show clearly that I am mortal no longer. I am now a true Faery, something you no doubt despise because they are the only beings that rank above you! Regardless of which I am the betrothed of the Goblin King, son of the High King of the Underground and as such you should be grovelling before me for forgiveness! Do not take me for a fool because I was once mortal, my magic can strip you of yours. Now you will apologise to both me and my subjects or I'll turn you into a goblin and you can live the rest of your immortal life in an oubliette!"

Sarah could feel the fury rising inside of her, incensed that someone would try to harm one of her beloved goblins, for that's what they were to her now. What she was unaware of was that she was summoning her power to its full and had begun to glow, her eyes and wings emanated a bright light that to the Fae in front of her was almost blinding, knowing her rage was directed at him. She could see the fear clearly in his eyes and it was a mere few seconds before he was on his knees begging for forgiveness. Sarah could feel the anger begin to leave her and she dropped the shield around her, indicating for the two goblins to stand in front of her.

"Oncil, Yilon, this Fae has gravely insulted you by trying to use magic against you, you see him here on his knees begging for forgiveness, do you grant him it?"

The goblins starting giggling and dancing about at the sight of a Fae bowing to them. They started to taunt him but Sarah was quick to reign them in. She was a fair person, and would not have someone ridiculed, she simply needed to teach him, and any other Fae who thought to insult her and her subjects a lesson. Eventually the goblins calmed down and conceded that they did indeed forgive the Fae. Sarah bid him rise then simply turned and walked back to Jareth to continue their dance. Jareth's face had held his arrogant grin throughout the entire performance and stayed with him most of the night. He'd known Sarah was more than a match for the goblins, but he'd never expected her to deal so well with the noble Fae. He was proud of his girl, and he made sure everyone knew it.

_Author's note:_

_Thank you so much for all the reviews, they really keep me motivated to keep writing. Thank you as well for the constructive criticism, hopefully they'll help me improve in the future, keep them coming!_


	17. Hostile Encounters

**Chapter 17 – Hostile encounters**

The ball went on for hours but eventually the High King called an end to it. As tradition demanded the Royal family lined up at the exit and bade every subject goodnight. As each being reached Sarah she noticed that they gave her bows or curtsy's just that bit lower than they had given the rest of the Royal family. She didn't realise the significance of this until later that night. Jareth explained that the ball had been her training ground and her test all in one and she had proven herself beyond contestation. There would still be a great many Fae who would grumble about an ex mortal being on the throne, but never would they say that Sarah was not a fair and just ruler, that she did not love her subjects, nor that she did not deserve her title as Queen.

Sarah felt a glow of pride at these words, she'd been so afraid that she would mess up during her stay, embarrass herself and her King, she had also been worried that her little outburst had been a little too much, but knowing that she had passed the test, that she had gained the approval of the majority set her heart at rest, and allowed her to truly enjoy the rest of their stay.

The next day was spent wandering around the castle and the gardens, although it lacked the medieval splendour of Jareth's castle, it nevertheless was truly magnificent to behold. Yet nothing she saw could compare to Hoggle's gardens, he'd poured his love into all his creations. As exquisite as the High Rulers castle was, it was stark in some ways, completely devoid of the devotion that was evident in every step of the gardens behind the castle at the centre of the Labyrinth. Sarah even found herself missing the castle. She had her friends here, Sir Didymus was guarding her loyally from the many imagined dangers, Ludo was her quiet, lovable companion, and Hoggle provided a constant tirade of moaning at how they didn't belong here, which had a ring of truth to it. Yet as long as she had her friends with her, she always had a piece of home, and so she was more than content.

She was even grateful for the trip because for the first time since her return to the Labyrinth, she had the chance to spend time with her old friends. When she'd first walked into the gardens she'd heard the familiar voice of Ludo calling her name, and couldn't help but rush to hug him. Sir Didymus had bowed to her and said how wonderful it was to see her again, and how good that she was looking so well and happy. Hoggle had, of course, foregone a greeting in favour of complaining how they'd put the wrong types of flowers together in the flowerbeds, and how the layout of the designs was completely wrong. Sarah had allowed herself a giggle before she had regally reminded him that what he might find beautiful, the designers of this garden might not, and that he should respect their differing views of beauty with a noble heart. This had of course set him off into another bout of grumbling that had Sarah laughing again, glad to be spending time with her old friends.

All the meals were held in the main hall, and although there was nothing as splendid as the engagement ball, there was usually music and dancing after every evening meal. During the second day Sarah got a chance to meet some more Faeries, who taught her a bit about channelling and controlling her magic and drawing on her full power, without letting it have power over her. She found some great friendships in her new 'family', bonds that were stronger than magic. For the first time in her life Sarah didn't feel out of place, she didn't feel different, for the first time Sarah was surrounded by people like herself, she felt happy, she felt content.

Yet the contentment was not to last long. On her third day there, during the evening meal, the doors to the dining room were thrown open as a herald ran in breathless, barely able to get out "Her Highness, Princess Aladrea" before a Fae female came strolling into the room. Dressed in sheer red satin that at a glance Sarah could see was translucent, the female walked quickly, with her head held high and a haughty look on her face. When she reached the High table she glanced up and down Sarah, and the haughty look increased to a sneer.

"So, this is your new pet Jareth, quite a step down from your last consort I must say, I never realised you had a taste for mortals."

Jareth's hand slid over Sarah's and she could feel the tension flowing through him as he answered.

"Aladrea, I do not believe you've met my fiancée Sarah."

"Fiancée? Well that's new, here I was thinking you could never be tamed into a marriage and all it took was mortal blood." Aladrea said, never taking her eyes off Sarah. To her credit, Sarah stared right back, barely containing her anger, but refusing to give this woman the satisfaction of knowing she was riling her.

"Aladrea you're walking a fine line." Jareth was having no such luck reigning in his emotions, he was seething as he spoke. "Sarah is my fiancée, and she is no longer mortal. I suggest you bring in whatever miscreant Fae you've brought with you and take a seat before I really lose my temper."

At this Aladrea finally looked away from Sarah and towards her brother, laughing arrogantly as she did so.

"She really has got her claws into you hasn't she? Well no matter, I'm sure you'll get bored of her soon enough. As for me, well there seems to be a shortage in miscreants today, I've come alone, I guess neither of us can keep hold of lover for long before we get bored… but at least I choose my paramours from true Fae, not mortal half-breeds." The sneer was back as was the loathing in her voice.

At this the High King himself stood up, warned Aladrea to watch her tongue lest she incur his wrath, and told her to take the seat that had appeared between him and Saliene. Looking like a sulky child, Aladrea nevertheless did as she was told, but the look she threw Sarah as she walked away said that this wasn't over. Her loathing for mortals was clear to see and she was not going to let Sarah get away with infiltrating her brother's life so easily.

Although Sarah didn't speak to Aladrea again that night, at times she could feel a deep hatred directed at her and she would repeatedly turn to find Aladrea glaring at her. Choosing to ignore her, Sarah spent the night in relative peace, but the next day Raecene came to Sarah's chamber and invited her for a horse ride with the High Queen, herself and Kalec. Sarah was thrilled knowing she'd been accepted by not only her husband's mother, but two of his brother's and their wives. It was clear Trea was going to be as difficult as Aladrea in approving of her, but that she had the support of the others meant the world to Sarah. Dressing in her traditional riding habit Sarah made her way to the stables and was met by the most magnificent horses she had ever seen. Their coats shone with an almost preternatural gleam and they were clearly strong animals. However Sarah never felt a twinge of fear around them, for all their strength, they had very calm temperaments and took to Sarah immediately.

For a few hours the ladies rode leisurely through the castle gardens and then the surrounding forest, stopping at noon for the picnic that had been tied in a basket to Kalec's horse. The lunch passed pleasantly and Sarah was thoroughly relaxed when they heard a crashing coming through the forest. Instantly alert Sarah got to her feet, yet she wasn't surprised when it was Aladrea who came pounding out of the forest into the clearing they had dined in. Jumping off her horse, Aladrea barely glanced at Sarah as she went over to embrace her mother. She greeted the other two women, giving thinly veiled insults as she went, but when she reached Sarah, the hostility was clear to see.

"So, the mortal pet ventures away from her King." She said with her usual sneer.

"Aladrea!" Came the outraged voice of her mother.

"No Saliene, let her speak, this little 'pet' has more venom than she knows."

"Venom? Oh of that I have no doubt, poisonous little mortal. What makes you think you're good enough for my brother?"

"I'm good enough because he loves me. I'm good enough because he believes me to be so, enough to want me for his queen. And I'm good enough because the Labyrinth saw fit to provide me with a magical form of the highest status of Fae, a fact which no doubt gives rise to the malice pouring off you right now, seeing as how it ranks me above you."

By this point Aladrea was seething. What Sarah was saying was true, and Aladrea was not the type of girl who was used to others standing up to her.

"Say what you like, you will be Queen by marriage, a mortal half-breed and nothing more. I am of pure royal blood and a full blooded Fae, you shall never rank above me."

"At least this Queen will have a Kingdom to rule."

This last barb cut deep and Sarah was honestly scared of what Aladrea might have done next if Saliene had not stepped in.

"Now Aladrea that is quite enough. Your father warned you last night to leave her alone and leave her you shall. That is your brother's future wife you're speaking to and you shall speak to her with respect even if you cannot find it in you to like her. I will not have quarrels between my children, and understand Aladrea, that as Jareth's betrothed, Sarah is now one of my children."

The steel in Saliene's voice was clear to hear. She despaired of her daughter's behaviour, but could not see a way to stop it, all she could do was try to restrain her more destructive conduct. Once again Sarah felt a surge of pride at having been so quickly accepted, but Aladrea's rage reached melting point and so with a fiery glare at Sarah she disappeared in an instant, leaving Saliene to try and soothe Sarah, who had to admit that the encounter had left her slightly shaken. Aladrea obviously had a lot of power, and Sarah wasn't quite sure if she would use it on her or not. All she could hope was that if she ever did, Sarah's powers were enough to match Aladrea's in combat.

The rest of the day passed pleasantly enough, and when the ladies returned to the castle they found that Aladrea had already left, gone back to visiting one of her many friends no doubt. Sarah felt an intense relief that she would not have to face her again during her stay, and so it was that the rest of the visit was a joy to experience. By the end of her stay, she could put faces to most of the names that she had read about in the histories of the Underground. She had promised that she would visit many of those she had met on her trip, especially her fellow Faeries, in their own dwellings, and she had made more than a few close friends. In the carriage on the way home Sarah found herself smiling to herself. She remembered when she'd first arrived back in the labyrinth and she'd thought of it as home, well it was true, and not just the Labyrinth, she felt more comfortable here in the Underground than she had in many years Aboveground. Ever since she'd run the Labyrinth she'd felt out of place, but now she was back where she belonged. She'd been Fae touched during her first trip, and that was something she would never have been able to forget. As horrible as the circumstances that had led to her return to the Underground had been, at least they had led her home…


	18. Preparations and revelations

**Chapter 18 – Preparations and revelations**

Once they arrived back home Sarah thought she was to have a relaxing week before Gerard's ball, but that wasn't meant to be. She discovered that the laws and protocols of Arnagoth were completely different to those of the Underground, in essence she had to start all over again with her learning. In addition to that there were a few summons from Aboveground, and having passed her first test, Jareth let Sarah have free reign over one of the runners journeys. Sarah enjoyed this more than she would have expected. It gave her a chance to explore the Labyrinth a little, discovering new and interesting places that she hadn't seen on her previous journeys through it. She also got the chance to test her magic, creating bigger and more elaborate illusions and tests for the runners. She found it easy to slip into the role of Goblin Queen, and yet she was still herself.

Sarah also placed a couple of hours aside a day to spend with the children in the nursery. She had been sad to see Tabatha and the others go, but seeing them going to loving families had made her smile. One of the runners Jareth had tested had given up on the first challenge, leaving his three-month-old son in Carnice's care. Sarah loved playing with him, he reminded her of Toby when he was younger, the same wispy blonde hair and cheeky smile. It hurt to think that his mother had died from complications due to childbirth after months of suffering and his father hadn't been able to stand the sight of him, so grieved he was by his wife's death. This wasn't an easy case, the father couldn't totally be blamed for wishing away his son in his grief, but he suffered from manic depression, and if he was to recover from this latest ordeal, he needed to be away from the living reminder of his wife's death. The child itself seemed happy enough, already a family had been found for him, but once again there was a small waiting period to make sure there were no ill effects from the transition from Aboveground to Below.

Sarah spent as much time as possible in the nursery, growing closer to Carnice by the day. She couldn't imagine how hard it must be for the Fae to care for the children for a week or two then hand them over to other families, but she knew she was doing a good thing, and after all, she couldn't possibly care for all the wished away children herself.

The week before Gerard's ball passed swiftly, and Sarah found herself looking forward to it, however her enthusiasm was destroyed the day before the ball. For Jareth, the time spent at his parents had been a respite from his worry. Surrounded by old friends and family, kept busy by visitations and games he'd had no time to think of the trials that would await him on their arrival to Arnagoth. However as soon as they returned home, his fears returned tenfold. He could not protect Sarah from what she would learn on their trip, he could not protect himself. All he could do was prepare her. But how to do that without telling her everything? The dilemma tormented him daily until he could put it off no longer.

Sarah was in her room practicing one of the formal dances with Mandana, as usual Sarah had mastered it quickly and soon became more adept at it than the goblin. In fact it wasn't long before Mandana tripped over Sarah's long skirt and sent them both tumbling into a pile of laughter on the floor. Smiling to himself Jareth walked over to them and reached down to help Sarah up, pulling her effortlessly back into the dance.

"Now this, my dear, is why goblins are never invited to dance." He said good-naturedly

"And yet it is goblins who must teach me seeing as you seem to have much more important things to deal with than my dancing techniques." It was said as a jest, yet immediately a shadow passed over Jareth's features and his dancing slowed, pulling Sarah ever so slightly closer to him.

"I'm sorry I have been distracted lately, but there are things I have needed to prepare for. Sarah, Arnagoth is a different world to this one, things aren't like they are here."

"Different how?" Sarah asked, beginning to worry at the tone of Jareth's voice, and the fact that he wouldn't look her directly in the eye. They had stopped dancing completely now, held in a tense embrace.

"Here in the Underground we have servants, Goblins and Fae who are employed by their own free will. But in Arnagoth this is not the case. Gerard keeps slaves, they do not have a choice in it and he doesn't treat them with proper care and respect."

Jareth finally looked in Sarah's eyes, only to witness the horror there at what he was saying.

"How can you let him do that?"

"I have no choice. It's his kingdom, the only way I could stop him would be to start a war. Understand that however much I want to stop his intolerable practice, I would not put my subjects through horror and death for it. My Goblins are my priority, it is them I must care for first and foremost."

Sarah could see the truth and the logic of his words, but it didn't make them any easier to accept. Creatures were being kept as slaves, forced to work against their will and mistreated. But was it fair to send Goblins to their death to stop it? That was a question Sarah could not answer.

"Jareth, do not make me go there. Do not make me see that with my own eyes."

Jareth sighed before answering. "Unfortunately my dear there is no way around it. To decline would be a huge insult as we are the guests of honour. An insult that big… The Kingdom of Arnagoth and that of the Labyrinth are on the constant verge of war, to not go would give him more than enough reason to attack. Understand Sarah, this is not your world, things are not so simple here. Gerard is a power hungry ruler who cares nothing for his subjects. He is willing to send them to their death over nothing, I am not. So tomorrow we shall go to his Kingdom, consume the feast, dance for a suitable amount of time and then leave. All I can offer you is the shortest visit possible." He pulled Sarah to him, kissing her gently on the forehead before whispering. "I'm sorry."

The rest of the night was spent in almost silence, the only words being spoken were those necessary to complete the final arrangements for the trip. What had been an exciting prospect to Sarah now filled her with dread. She loathed that she had to go, but she understood Jareth's reasoning. That night neither of them slept well, dreadful thoughts of the day to come going round and round their heads. Come the morning silence reigned once again, although in the carriage on the journey Jareth placed his arm around Sarah and held her to him protectively. As before the carriage rose above the clouds, yet when it started to descend Sarah found herself looking over a large expanse of water, and it only slightly startled her when the carriage plunged below the waves. Once again Sarah found she could breathe easily enough under the water, although the trip to the Caves were a lot longer than that to Caracea. It was almost an hour before Sarah found the water gone and only seconds later the carriage landed lightly on the ground. With a wave of his hand Jareth dried them, transformed their clothes into evening wear and stepped out of the carriage, helping Sarah down behind him.

On stepping from the carriage Sarah noticed they were in a small cave, lit by a few wooden torches on the wall. There was no one around to greet them, but a row of small candles lit a path towards the back of the cave. Jareth explained that it was customary for the guests of honour to arrive last and enter the great hall alone, all they had to do was follow the path and it would lead them where they needed to go. Indeed as they followed the path Sarah discovered the back of the cave had been excavated to form a tunnel and it wasn't long before they reached a large wooden door. As they stepped in front of it the door began to open slowly by itself. Sarah barely had chance to manifest her wings and take a deep breath, before they stepped forward into the great hall.


	19. Head held high and shoulders back

**Chapter 19 – Head held high and shoulders back**

As Sarah walked into the grand ballroom on Jareth's arm, she immediately felt all eyes in the room turn to them, and a gasp rang out as they noticed the wings she now bore. Intimidated by their gaze, her step faltered, but Jareth's arm under hers was strong, steadying her nerves and allowing her to walk down the huge ornate staircase with the grace of a true queen. She still wasn't sure of what to expect, she knew that being human, her reception would be less than welcoming, but other than that, this was a whole new world… another one.

All eyes were still riveted to her and Jareth as they reached the bottom of the staircase. Jareth began to lead her over to where King Gerard sat on his throne. Unfortunately their path led through the centre of the ballroom, and so through all the guests. Although they moved readily to give Jareth space, Sarah felt a few distinct brushes on her wings, a mark of disrespect at their unwillingness to give the future Queen of the Labyrinth enough space to move without hindrance. However now was not the time to bring up such things, they were nearing Gerard's throne, and from the tense way Jareth held her arm, she could sense he was more than a little worried about the meeting.

When they finally reached the throne Jareth released her arm, and dipped into a respectful bow, suitable for one king to another and Sarah gave Gerard a traditional curtsey at the same time.

As they both rose there was silence for a while, the tension almost a physical presence as the entire room waited for Gerard's judgment on his guests. Eventually he raised one arm, gesturing to the crowd and began to speak.

"King Jareth of the Goblin Kingdom, and consort Sarah, honoured guests at the annual feast of the Caves of Arnagoth, we bid you welcome."

Not missing a beat Jareth inclined his head to the side slightly and responded. "Consort she may have been Gerard, but it cannot have escaped your notice that my dear Sarah has manifested her powers, and such are they that they require an instant proposal, making her no longer my consort, but now my future queen. As such you will address her with her full title and I trust you will not insult us both once again and will remember to use her proper title from now on."

A gasp rippled through the room of guests, shocked by the audacity of a foreign king to correct, and admonish, their ruler. It was clear Gerard struck fear into his people. Gerard himself however was not so taken aback by Jareth's comments. "King Jareth I apologise, the laws of your kingdom differ from those here and as such I was unfamiliar with them and so unaware of your betrothal. Please accept my sincere apologies, both you and Sarah, future Queen of the Labyrinth. And due to the insult I gave I shall take no offence at your lack of use of my title, but as I shall remember yours, I shall assume that from now on you shall both address me by mine."

This time Jareth grinned, obviously pleased with his minor victory, and nodded his head slightly in Gerard's direction as a sign of peace, although from the tense way he was holding her arm, Sarah knew something wasn't right. Jareth was clearly hiding something, but this was not the time and place to ask.

Rising before his guests Gerard invited everyone to withdraw to the dining room to begin the nights feast now that the guests of honour had arrived. Sarah found herself being ushered away from the throne and towards a door on the adjacent wall. She walked by Jareth's side as always, but behind Gerard, a sign that royalty though they may be, this was not their land.

Sarah found herself entirely disappointed when she entered the dining room. It was very sparsely decorated with a few seashells, but mostly it was simply a long room, carved out of the rock, with a table running the full length down the centre. The table settings themselves consisted of simple silver candelabra and plain silver plates and cutlery. There was none of the opulence of Jareth's or the High King and Queen's halls, no grandeur or decoration, only functionality. The only sign that the hall belonged to anyone of importance was the throne like chair situated at one end for Gerard.

When Gerard seated himself he motioned for Sarah and Jareth to sit at one side of him, with Jareth closest. The gesture itself was an insult, tradition dictated that the table settings should be man woman man woman, yet the sneer on Gerard's face when Sarah seated herself showed that Faery though she may now be, she would always be a human in his eyes, and as such, not worthy of his table. The thought crossed her mind as to why Gerard had invited her as guest of honour if he felt she was so far beneath him, but her mind was distracted as the other guests seated themselves and she saw more than a few duck their heads to whisper to their neighbour whilst glancing her way with looks of disgust in their eyes. Sarah managed to keep her head held high, but the effort was draining her, to be constantly looked down on by everyone was a hard thing to bear.

Eventually Gerard called the table to order and demanded the food be brought out. Sarah saw a door on the opposite wall open and creatures came out bearing trays of food. It was only as they got near the table the Sarah saw the metal bands around their wrists and ankles marking them as Gerard's slaves. Their rags of clothes and dirty skin and hair screamed this fact too. Sarah felt the disgust rising within her at the thought of being served by people forced into service against their will, but she reminded herself that this was not her Kingdom, she had no power here. Knowing that did not make it any easier to bear though, however it was only as the first boy placed her plate of meat in front of her that she got a clear look at his face, caught the pure desperation in his eyes and realised something that made her heart go cold. He was human. The slaves were human.

Sarah turned to look at Jareth in abject horror, but he simply looked at her with a dejected look in his eyes as she said, "They're human. Why didn't you tell me they were human?"

"I told you what you needed to know."

"No you did not!" For the sake of propriety and not wanting their conversation to be heard by others, Sarah kept her voice low, but her anger was clear to see, and there was a tinge of hysteria to her voice as her mind tried to process what she was seeing. "Jareth how could you not have told me he had human slaves?"

A coldness came into Jareth's eyes as he replied. "Sarah, future Queen you may be, but I am still King. I warned you he kept slaves, I felt that was all that was needed."

"All that was needed???? Jareth how could you have thought that their being human was not important. I was human too, did you simply forget that?"

The stare Jareth gave her almost made Sarah shrink back, only her anger kept her strong.

"It matters not where we begin, only where we end up."

The words struck her like a physical blow. That her future husband, the man she was going to spend the rest of her Faery life with could be so cruel was heartbreaking. The look on his face told her everything, only now she was Fae was she worthy of him. Humans were beneath him, as they were now supposed to be to her.

Unable to reply through her seething anger and fearing she would cry if she tried, Sarah simply turned away from him and picked up her wine glass, taking a long gulp to try and steady her nerves. This short conversation had revealed a lot about her fiancé, and although this conversation would have to continue, she was well aware this was not the time. She took a long drink, almost emptying the glass before placing it back on the table. For a second she wished she did not have the Fae tolerance for alcohol, tonight she felt the need to get blind drunk.


	20. Compassion's power

**Chapter 20 - Compassion's power**

After the meal Gerard had led his guests into an adjoining room. This was slightly more decorated with sea ornaments than the dining room, yet still much less extravagant than Jareth's tastes. A band had begun to play music and a few couples had started to dance. Most however stood around in little groups discussing the various lands politics. It was whilst part of one of these discussions that Sarah began to despair that anyone would speak one word to her. She was also beginning to wish this world ran more like Aboveground, a nice sign indicating where the restrooms were would save her a lot of hassle. She didn't need to use them, but it seemed like a good reason to excuse herself from the conversation. Sadly there were no signs, so with an almost imperceptible sigh of resignation, she excused herself from the party and aimed towards a serving maid handing out yet more wine. She tapped the maid on the shoulder and was about to ask where the restroom was, but when the maid turned round she gasped in surprise and forgot everything she'd been about to say.

The girl that stood before her had changed immensely, she was thinner, much thinner, paler too, her cheeks had lost all their colour. Her clothes were now the rags of a serving wench, no longer the bright colours of a fourteen-year-old girl. The biggest difference though was her expression, gone was the happy smile that seemed permanently planted in her heart, instead of the lively chatter Sarah remembered, all that was left of young girl she'd known, was the eyes. Eyes that despite being filled with pain and hatred, still held the hope of a girl who refused to accept that this harsh life was her fate.

For a few seconds they both stared at each other in silence, before the serving maid lost her composure and dropped the tray of drinks she was holding, it was only Sarah's instinct for her new Fae magic that prevented the tray and drinks reaching the ground. Using her powers to place them safely back in the girls hands she quickly steered her out of the ballroom by the nearest exit and down the corridor. At that point the girl seemed to regain her senses a little, taking the lead and showing Sarah into what appeared to be a waiting room of a sort. Although it contained the usual chairs and couches along with low tables for tea, there were shackles on the wall and the door had a bolt on it, which the maid quickly pulled closed, before settling on a couch next to Sarah.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, both shocked by what they were seeing, before Sarah slowly reached out and straightened a piece of the maids hair that had become dislodged. This small act was all it took to break the silence.

"Sarah…. dear god Sarah is that really you?"

Smiling slightly Sarah replied "Yes, it's really me." Suddenly the smile was gone "But geez Kara, what are you doing here? I mean you disappeared years ago, there was no trace of you, nothing at all."

At that point Sarah saw the first hint of tears in the eyes of the girl who'd been her best friend up until her mysterious disappearance at the age of fourteen.

"He took me. I was out walking, it was after a fight with Graham it seems so stupid now, so pointless. He'd grounded me for staying out too late again. I screamed at him, said he wasn't my father, that he couldn't order me around…. It was so childish, we argued, so I ran out, I didn't even know where I was going. I was just so angry, angry that my dad had left, angry my mum had remarried, angry that Graham was grounding me. It all seems so small now… but I guess when you grow up childish things like that do seem small."

She paused, gathering her thoughts and calming her breathing before continuing.

"Anyway I was walking and this man appeared in front of me, I mean he just appeared, from nowhere. I was stunned, I just stood there watching, then he reached out to me, I screamed and turned to run, but he was there behind me. No matter where I turned he was always there in front of me. Eventually he just laughed and grabbed me. I think I blacked out then, I don't know, the next few days are a bit blurry. I remember waking up in some kind of cell though, dark, underground it seemed, damp. I was chained to the wall, and hungry, so hungry. No one came for a few days and when they did it was only to give me mouldy bread and some water. I was there weeks, I screamed but no one came, I begged to be let free when the food was brought, but they just ignored me. Eventually I gave up hope, I thought I was going to die down there, but then someone came and let me out. They put on these chains, gave me these rags and set me to work…. I've been here ever since…"

The sorrow was clear in her voice, regret at her childish mistakes, but the hope was still there in her eyes, grown stronger now by seeing Sarah.

"Oh Kara, if only I'd have known…"

"How could you? But what are you doing here? And like that! You've got wings Sarah, and you're dressed like… like a Queen, what's going on?"

There was no anger in her voice, only complete wonderment at having her childhood friend turn up, looking so well. Quickly Sarah explained her story, skimming through the part about her attack, although the pain at hearing it was clear on Kara's face. There were a few moments silence at the end as they both tried to take in each other's lives after so many years apart. Something was nagging at Sarah though, something she didn't want to ask, but she had to know.

"Kara, I'm sorry, but I need to know. How does Gerard treat you?"

At the question Kara visibly shrank back away from Sarah, her fear blazing out of her eyes. That was all the answer Sarah needed. The anger that had been building up inside her since discovering the slavery in this place finally spilled over at the silent, yet obvious, revelation at how Gerard had used her friend in every possibly way. She could feel the magical energy of the castle begin to draw in close around her, as if her anger siphoned it off from the very walls. Kara's eyes grew wide in shock as light began to emanate from Sarah's body, most noticeably her eyes and wings. Suddenly they both heard a crack as loud as thunder but it came from within the castle itself, and at the same moment Sarah's eyes lost all colour, simply turning white, along with her wings. Slowly Sarah stood and walked out the door, Kara could do nothing but follow in fear, not of her friend, but of the repercussions of her friend's actions.

As Sarah walked back into the great hall she barely registered that the crowd was almost silent, whispering quietly about the crack of thunder they'd all heard. What she did register was their reaction the moment they noticed her. Almost as a single entity every person in the room turned to look at her with both fear and wonder in their eyes. Rarely did the spectacle being displayed to them occur, and never had it happened in the Caves of Arnagoth. Unbeknownst to Sarah, she was calling on the very magic of the world itself, that of the Caves, the water and the world above. Very few creatures could do this to such an extent, it required not only immense skill on behalf of the creature in question, it also required a mutual understanding with the source of the magic. Just as the Somoth tree was the source of the power of the Labyrinth, so Arnagoth too had a source of power.

And right now this source was giving Sarah all the power in the kingdom to carry out her act of vengeance.

As Sarah walked slowly through the crowd towards the throne, there was no brushing against her wings as there had been before, instead the people backed off to give her as much room as she needed, most bowing or curtseying as she passed, proof that they realised what she herself did not. Sarah was barely aware of all this, she was staring straight ahead, into the eyes of Gerard, whilst his eyes went first wide in wonder at the power of his kingdom being given to someone other than himself, and an ex-human at that, and then narrowed in fear as he realised he was powerless against her wrath.

By the time Sarah reached the throne Gerard was cowering in it, reduced from the powerful and proud King that he'd been, to no more than a snivelling child. Sarah towered over him and as she began to speak, her voice resonated with the power flowing through her.

"From the second I entered this castle I learnt things about you that were like to make me sick. You've shown yourself both in actions and words to be a foul creature not worthy of the throne. You are King of these caves and yet instead of using that power for good you kidnap children from Aboveground and force them here as your slaves. You starve them, torture them, force them into service! You stole my fourteen year old friend! You are the lowest creature I have ever met and I swear to you I will not rest until I have destroyed every bit of evil you have poured throughout this land. King you may be, but no more a King of slaves. As I leave I will take with me every slave, every servant, every subject you've ever tortured or abused, and every subject who no longer wishes to be part of a land ruled by the likes of you. I will destroy you Gerard, of that you can be sure."

The hatred within her was clear with every word she spoke yet through his fear his eyes kept flitting between her and Jareth. At first she simply thought he was asking Jareth to intervene, yet a glance at her husband to be showed a different truth. There was a fear in his eyes that had no place there and as she looked back to Gerard, he sensed her confusion and through his palpable fear came a sense of gloating. Though she knew his next words could destroy everything, she was powerless to stop them coming.

"So Jareth, it seems you've found another powerful girl with a taste for slaves…"

The words hung in the air, the silence that followed them was crushing as Sarah tried to make sense of them. As she studied Jareth she saw the fear mix with shame, their bond so strong she could almost feel the hurt and humiliation for herself. Suddenly Jareth raised his eyes to look directly into hers and sent a thought so strong she couldn't help but grasp the meaning.

"You… you were his slave. He's the one your mother adopted you from. That's what Sir Didymus meant about you being human once… He stole you, just like he stole Kara… Oh God what did he do to you?"

As the horror ran through her mind her focus wavered, the power began to drift from her and her eyes and wings regained their colour. Jareth once again lowered his eyes, but not before Sarah saw the tears in them. Seeing her powerful lover reduced to such was an agony of torture in itself, but when she saw Gerard raise himself up in his throne, the fear gone from him now, replaced by a look of triumph all her anger returned with a force. The power returned to her with a second crack of thunder, this one deafeningly loud, as her eyes and wings lost their colour once more. Raising her hand in silence she created a rose sphere, and waving her other hand around it, it began to expand, slowly at first, then with a flash of light it filled the room then disappeared… along with many of the creatures in the room.

Gerard stared in shock and fear at the magical feat Sarah had just performed.

"Where… where have they gone? What have you done with them?"

"I told you I'd take them, think you it was an idle threat? All those that so wished are now subjects of the Goblin King. They are under my protection and you will NOT harm them, nor contact them in any way! Rest assured Gerard that I am no mere mortal to be trifled with. If I hear of you mistreating anyone, or taking another innocent mortal as a slave I will tear your Kingdom to the ground and make sure you share its fate!"

With another flash of light Sarah transported herself and the Goblin King back to the castle at the centre of the Labyrinth. Having reached there however, all the magic she'd been siphoning off Arnagoth left her and the sudden loss of power caused her lose consciousness, only the quick reflexes of Jareth stopped her crashing to floor. As it was, through all Jareth's shame and humiliation he could do no more than wait for Sarah to regain consciousness, terrified of what her awakening might bring with her.


	21. The secrets behind the king

**Chapter 21 – The secrets behind the King**

Sarah was awoken by a sharp pounding in her head, it felt like the worst hangover she'd ever had, but there was no sick feeling in her stomach and instead of the fuzzy memories of the night before, she was suddenly assaulted by the very vivid memory of what she'd done. Sitting up straight in bed in shock, she found Jareth sat on the window ledge, knees drawn up to his chin. As she looked at him he seemed to have aged years, there were bags under his eyes and his whole face looked strained. For a while there was silence as they both tried to find words to take them past this moment. Eventually all it took was a simple gesture, Sarah stood up and walked over to him. When she reached the window she simply sat down beside him and laid her head against his hip. The motion was enough to let the Goblin King know that his shame was not enough to drive Sarah away. Almost trembling in relief Jareth lowered his legs, placed a gentle hand on Sarah's shoulder and then tenderly kissed the top of her head. Knowing things would be okay, Sarah placed her hand over Jareth's and looked up to smile at him, but both their smiles were tinged with melancholy and as much as they knew they'd survive this, they knew they had a long hard talk ahead of them.

It was Sarah who eventually started speaking "Jareth, I'm sorry but I have to know. We're getting married, I thought I could carry on not knowing your past but I simply can't. I need to know what happened to you, without it, I can't know who you are. I'd be marrying a stranger, because if you don't tell me now, you never will. I love you, and you have no reason to feel ashamed by what has happened to you, none at all, but I need to know…"

For a while there was silence as Jareth steeled himself for the disgust he was sure he was about to get off Sarah once she knew his history. Yet she was right, it wasn't fair on her to go into this marriage not knowing his past. So slowly he began to tell her of the events that had led to his being king.

"Remember back when you were running the Labyrinth the second time?" He paused whilst Sarah nodded, then turned his head to look out the window. "Sir Didymus told you I was human. He was right, or at least I used to be. I was born a mortal Aboveground, but not long after my tenth birthday I was wished away by my mother. I was born out of wedlock and back then that was unforgivable. After years of scorn she finally wished me away and the Goblin King took me. Back then the Goblin Kingdom wasn't part of my father's Kingdom. The King took the children, set the wisher in the Labyrinth and that was pretty much all the participation he had. He was more interested in court life in the various realms and spent very little time here. The Labyrinth was left to tend to itself and as the King couldn't be bothered to set tasks, most children got taken back. But my mother didn't want me, I had no one to run the Labyrinth. Usually in that case the servants would have adopted me out to a Fae family, but that was not to be my fate. The Goblin King was Gerard's brother and the day I was brought to the Labyrinth Gerard was visiting. He decided he needed a new servant and so he took me. I was a slave there until I was fourteen. By that time Gerard felt I was… tame enough to be allowed to serve in public." He said the word tame with such disgust in his voice that Sarah physically winced.

She knew exactly what he meant without him having to say it, although he'd been spared the sexual abuse Kara had been subject to, there were a whole host of physical and mental tortures Jareth had been put through. But he wasn't going to dwell on that.

"He threw his annual ball, and that particular year it was in honour of High King and Queen of the Underground's three hundredth anniversary, so they were in attendance. It was my first time serving at a formal occasion and I was so nervous I dropped a pitcher of wine as I was serving one of the Lords of the Caves. He was so angry he picked up the pitcher and threw it at my head before slapping me. The High Queen saw this and stood up, saying to Gerard 'This is an outrage! What do you intend to do about this?' I still remember her words clearly, I remember seeing her and thinking she was a Goddess"

He stopped at that point to smile to himself at the memory.

"Gerard misunderstood though, he thought she was outraged at my behavior, not the lords, so he sentenced me to ten lashes." This time he let out a small chuckle.

"You should have seen my mother's face. I remember blinking and all of a sudden she was beside me and had her arm around my shoulders. She berated Gerard for his treatment of an innocent child and took me away, right there and then, in the middle of the banquet. At first I was simply a page in the High Rulers castle, but I was fairly treated, and always given the choice to leave. Then I became a personal page to her, soon I was no longer a servant but a friend of the Princes. After a year or so of being there the High King and Queen formally adopted me. To this day I don't know why she chose me, I was nothing, a mere slave in a foreign King's castle. All my mother will say about it, is that she saw great potential in me, potential that she now knows relates to the Labyrinth Until I became King here I had no powers, but the second I walked through the doors of this castle I gained my Animalanis form and the power over crystals. Mother always says when she saw me sit on the throne for the first time, it was like I was coming home."

Jareth was silent for a while, lost in memories, but pleasant ones now. Sarah was afraid to shatter the peace but there was something else she had to know.

"Jareth, why did you hide this from me?"

Jareth looked at her with anger in his eyes, so fierce that Sarah shrunk back in fear.

"I was nothing Sarah! He took me and made me a slave, I was less than nothing. How can you say there's no shame in that? I'm King now, and for a King to have that kind of past is beyond shame! Being the youngest male wasn't the only reason I was given the Labyrinth to rule, no other Kingdom would have me, how could a man who used to be a slave, a human slave at that, be King over true Fae creatures?"

Sarah knew that how he felt was unjustified, he had no reason to be ashamed of events that he had no control over, but she knew nothing she could say could change that. She also knew he was right about one thing, the Fae were not the most forgiving creatures, and although the Goblins had easily forgiven his past, the high born Fae probably never would…

"Jareth… I know I can never convince you that you've got nothing to feel ashamed about, what Gerard did to you goes too deep for mere words to cure, but I will say this. You are King! Whether of Goblins or Fae you are King, and the respect that affords you comes not from your title, but from the way you rule your people. You are a fair ruler, kind to your people… kinder still to those whished away. Your people respect you, you may not realise it, but they do, and so too do those of other Kingdoms. Look at what happened back in the Caves, that hall was half emptied, all those creatures wishing to be a part of your Kingdom, because of the King that you are. Your past is a part of you and always will be, but stop looking at yourself through the eyes of the child you were then, and look at yourself, your kingdom and your subjects, through the eyes of the King you are now."

Her words had a profound effect on him. Although he doubted he would ever be free of the shame of his past, he knew what she'd said was the truth. More than that though, was the relief from the worry that had been torturing him since he'd first received the invite from Gerard. Sarah still loved him. Almost instantly his face broke into a grin and he pulled Sarah into his lap before kissing her. When they pulled apart Sarah's smile matched his, but Jareth's was soon to fade.

"Sarah we need to talk about what you did last night."

Sarah's smile faded in response to this. "I'm sorry, I know you told me to leave it, but Kara was my best friend, and he took her, he used her… I couldn't stand by, I couldn't leave her there…"

"I know." He said kissing her gently on the forehead. "You did the right thing, its how you did it that's the problem." At this Sarah frowned in confusion. "What you did was evoke the very power of Arnagoth itself. I know you didn't do it on purpose" he said quickly as he saw her open her mouth to speak "because it's not something you can do on purpose, you don't choose to have that power, the power source chooses to give it to you."

He paused as he could see the light begin to dawn in her eyes.

"Sarah what did has been done by so few people over the ages, it's a sign that the Source respects you… it's a sign it chooses you as its ruler. Over the years the laws have been twisted, it happens so rarely that no one really understands it, and because wars are so easily started between Kingdom's and worlds… What you did was forbidden Sarah, in essence you tried to claim Gerard's throne through the usurping of his world's power. You made him powerless against you and therefore unsuitable to be a ruler. Wars have been started over much less and the few times this has been done in the recent past, it's always come off worse for the perpetrator. By law… Gerard can ask for you to be punished."

"Punished…?" It was almost a whisper, the fear now beginning to grow inside Sarah.

"In order to stop Gerard starting a war with my Kingdom over your supposed insult to him, the High King will grant him a boon. I don't know what this will be, but considering this is Gerard… I think we should plan for the worst."

"Is there nothing you can do?"

"I'm going to go speak to my father now, at least this way he'll be prepared for when Gerard contacts him. Other than that, all we can do it wait"

At this Sarah became silent, overwhelmed by his words. Yet soon a question began to haunt her and she had to break the silence.

"Jareth, if Gerard hates humans so much, why did he invite us, both ex-humans, as guests of honour?"

"It's not that he hates humans, like most of the Fae he simply feels they are below him, an inferior race, one he does not feel fit to rule a Kingdom… The Goblin Kingdom was not always ruled by my family, neither has it always been part of The Underground, though its lands always bordered ours. Not long before my mother took me from Gerard, my father declared war on the King of the Goblin Kingdom. The King of the time, and indeed the Kings of the past, kept the Goblins as slaves, and they were treated worse than Gerard treats his slaves. Incensed at how the King treated his subjects, my father sent his Fae army into these lands to stop the slavery."

Drawing Sarah closer to him, Jareth gathered his thoughts before continueing.

"With Gerard the situation is different, he has an army, a fairly grand one, none of who chose to come here. Were my father to declare war on him, many hundreds, possibly thousands of Fae lives would be lost in the fighting. It is a dilemma my father has thought on for years, but he will not send so many of his people to die, no matter how just the cause. The previous Goblin Kings' army consisted of the Goblins. Goblins that, when sent out to face the opposing army, simply laid down their weapons and surrendered. With the lives they lived at the hands of their King, they felt that whatever treatment they got at the hands of the enemy had to be better. With no army to fight for him, the King fled. To this day he hasn't been found, but when I came of age my father handed the rule of the lands to me, knowing that, having been a slave myself, I would never mistreat a single subject."

He paused to look out of the window once more, at his lands and his subjects that so loved, and had sworn to protect. After a few moments he turned back to look at Sarah and continued.

"Gerard invited us because the previous Goblin King was his brother, and he has never forgiven my father for usurping him. Even worse, I was once a human, once his slave, to see his brother' lands in my hands grieves him beyond endurance. It is my belief that he invited us in expectation that you would discover my past and be shamed by it, shamed into leaving me. I suppose he hoped that by doing so I would weaken and possibly allow him to claim these lands back. Who knows?" Smiling with a fierce pride Jareth laid his hand on Sarah's cheek. "He certainly didn't expect you to lay claim to his throne."

Sarah smiled back slightly, but a fear had now clutched her heart. "But now I've given him even more reason to hate you. What if he asks for this Kingdom as my punishment?"

"It is likely that my kingdom will be the boon he asks for, all we can hope is that my father comes up with something to placate him that does not require too much of a sacrifice…"

Sarah lowered her head and once again leant into Jareth. The guilt for the situation her actions had placed them in was taking over her, but Jareth was right, all they could do now was wait.


	22. Malicious opportunists

**Chapter 22 – Malicious opportunists **

"Why that vile, low, disgusting, loathsome, foul creature! How dare she come in here and take the power of this kingdom! Acting like royalty when she is no more than a mere mortal. I'll have her head for this! You mark my words; before her time is through I'll have that bitch begging for death!"

Gerard ducked out of the way of a glass powder jar that had been thrown in his general direction. He was used to his mistress's tempers by now, and well aware that in her rage her aim was useless. He was also more than aware that her rage was not directed at him, he was simply convenient. So he let her rant and throw things until, as usual, her anger dispersed into a silent, motionless fury. He had learnt over the years that only in this state would she listen to reason.

"Now dear, loathsome and vile she may be, but you are forgetting the mistake she made today. You know the law as well as I, to usurp the power of another's kingdom is to declare yourself ruler, a crime with an unfixed punishment. As the ruler of this kingdom it is I who gets to choose the punishment…"

"Only with the High King's permission." The lady interrupted him.

"Be that as it may, this is a crime of such severity that no punishment is deemed unworthy, not even the High King can dispute that without risking open war, and we both know how… unwilling he is to allow that to happen."

"Cowardly more like!"

"Call it what you will, it is something that has always been to my… well to our advantage, and so it shall be again. There is nothing I can ask for that he can refuse, and so my dear, I think that we may have managed to stumble upon our goal in the end, though by a much different route than we planned."

There was silence for a while as the two simply looked at each other, the idea of Gerard's slowly forming in his lady's head. Yet it wasn't long before another thought began to form. No longer was she wishing for Jareth's lands, suddenly she could see a more valuable prize, a prize that was now well within her reach. Come to that matter, why not have both… As the plan began to take place in her mind a smile formed on her face that sent more than a twinge of fear into Gerard's heart, for the first time since the founding of their unholy alliance, he was beginning to realise he may just have gotten himself in over his head…

_Author's note:_

_Thank you so much for all the reviews, they really are keeping me incredibly motivated in my writing. _


	23. To protect the peace

**Chapter 23 – To protect the peace…**

The High King was pacing his throne room, cursing his youngest son for his folly. Throughout his life Jareth had caused endless trouble, heck he'd barely been surprised when Jareth had announced his engagement to Sarah. Yet now this charming girl had set into motion events that even he as High King had no power to stop. He had to be the peacekeeper in this war but with the laws so unclear on this matter he was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He could not refuse Gerard a boon without risking war, yet what would he be willing to sacrifice on Jareth's behalf to keep the peace? The thoughts went round in his head, as he paced around the throne room cursing his son all the while.

His wife however was a picture of calm and serenity. Over seven hundred years with her husband had taught her it was best to leave him when his moods took him like this. Even more prudent when Jareth was the cause of his troubles. She loved her youngest son with all her heart, but sometimes she wished he'd think before he rushed into these things. Betrothing himself to a mortal is one thing, but to take that mortal, untrained in her new magic to a hostile neighbor's Kingdom was just foolish. Still, boys will be boys and she expected naught less from Jareth. Right now it was not her place to admonish him, she too was a peacekeeper, but she was willing to give less than her husband for the sake of peace. Jareth was her son first and foremost, and she hated Gerard to the depths of her soul for the way he treated his slaves. If it had been up to her she would have declared war on him years ago, but her husband cared much for his people, too much to send them off to their deaths by the thousand, so a strained peace resigned.

Yet now Jareth's actions had put their peace in jeopardy, and as the doors to the throne room opened and Gerard stormed into the hall, the High Queen felt her heart turn to ice, as she saw the destruction of all she held dear walking down the hall towards her and her husband.

When Gerard reached the throne with the High King now sat in it, there was a moment's hesitation where he started the High King straight in the eye, before he lowered himself into a bow. The act of defiance turned the High Kings anger into a boiling rage and so the scene was set for a long and bitter discussion regarding Sarah's punishment.

"Your majesty. I stand here today to demand punishment of Sarah, ex-mortal and future Queen of the Labyrinth. Yesterday she entered my kingdom and channeled the lands power for her own use against myself. Such an act is a crime of an extremely serious nature and the law states that in order to reclaim my Kingdom and my honour both, I am bound to ask for her punishment."

It was only with incredible strength of mind that the High King restrained his temper and was able to reply in a calm and even tone.

"And what is the punishment you would ask for?"

"You Majesty…"

For a second Gerard hesitated, fearing the anger of the King sat in front of him. Gerard may have been a king himself, but the High King was without a doubt the more powerful of the two, and both were aware of this fact. Yet Gerard was a greedy soul, and deathly afraid of his lady, who waited back in the Caves for news of this meeting. So he cleared his throat and continued, but there was a slight waver to his voice, an insecurity that was easily detectable by the High King.

"Your Majesty, the punishment I ask for is this: That the land of the Labyrinth shall be immediately transferred to my jurisdiction. For the insult of trying to usurp my Kingdom, I should have Sarah's. As for Sarah herself, as a true punishment, and to stop her repeating this unforgivable crime, I demand her death!"

Silence reigned for a long time in the throne room, and the perfect stillness of the High King filled Gerard with more fear than his violent anger ever could. The High Queen sat unmoving too, with silent tears pooling in her eyes. Her tears were not so much for Sarah, she knew the girl too little to cry for her, but they were for her son. He would be heartbroken to lose Sarah, and it was not something he would ever forget. The High Queen didn't need to see the future to know that what Gerard was asking had the power to rip their lands apart, wars could be started that would never end, fear and despair would reign…. And all over a girl. For the first time, the High Queen began to realise just how powerful Sarah could be.

For a long time the High King did not speak, neither did he take his eyes off Gerard. Gerard himself, intimidated easily by the High King's glare quickly averted his eyes, but the High King kept on staring. Many minutes past, maybe hours, the tension in the room seemed to make the seconds last forever. Eventually the High King had cleared his head enough to speak.

"Gerard, it is true that for her crime, Sarah must be punished, but you ask for two punishments. You ask for her life and her lands, an understandable boon if she were Queen in her own right, but as yet she is not Queen, and even if she were, Jareth is the born King and therefore he would still hold the rights to the Labyrinth."

"But Your Highness…"

"Do not interrupt me!" For a second the High King let his anger show through and Gerard physically cowered. "By asking what you have, you also punish Jareth, an innocent in this crime. Why should I remove his lands for his future wife's crime?"

Gerard hesitated for a few seconds to make sure he was being given permission to speak, not wanting to incur any more of the High King's wrath.

"Your Majesty, Sarah has no lands of her own, otherwise I would ask for those. As it is all she has is the Labyrinth, and although Jareth was not a party in this crime, he is not completely innocent, Sarah is still learning to use her new powers, as such Jareth is her mentor and therefore as guilty in the eyes of the law as she is."

By the end of his speech, his voice was barely above a whisper. He and his lady had talked for hours, preparing him answers to anything the High King might ask, it was only this preparation that allowed him to speak at all, but as it was his terror was clearly visible. Nevertheless, the High King could not deny his power, he knew the slightest injustice would cause Gerard to declare war on Jareth, and as the insult was directly between the two, neither the High King nor his army could not intervene.

The High King once again thought long and hard about what Gerard had said. Though his eyes showed nothing, his mind kept going over the matter at hand again and again. No matter what path he chose to follow, all he could see was death and destruction. Eventually he saw the only feasible way out of this, and that was to put it firmly in Jareth's hands. The High King would not condemn the Goblins to war and death, but for the sake of Sarah, Jareth well might, and he was more than within his rights to. Not wanting Gerard to realise his plans, the High King spoke thus:

"Gerard, the boon you have asked for is harsh, but still within the laws. However I feel it is far too high a price for the crime to be paid. To make sure the law is followed correctly, I shall have to consult the law books in more detail. I shall give you a decision once I have looked into these matters further."

A look of triumph came into Gerard's face. He knew he'd won. The laws were vague about the matter in general, but they were clear on one thing, the offended ruler would set the punishment. For a second he stopped cowering, but immediately the High King's anger returned and Gerard thought it wise not to look too smug. So once again he hunched his shoulders, muttered a frightened thanks, and quickly left. Yet he left in his wake a melancholy that set inside the High Rulers bones and they knew would not leave them for many a year. By bringing Sarah to the Underground, Jareth had set in motion events which could end in the destruction of their whole Kingdom…


	24. Impossible solution

**Chapter 24 - Impossible solution**

Jareth paced his throne room, desperate for news of what Gerard had demanded. Sarah simply sat on her throne and watched him. She knew there was nothing she could do to ease his mind, and in fact her mind was so consumed with guilt and worry, she was in no position to do anything but make him worse. She kept going over the events in her head, wondering how she could have done things different, how she could have prevented this. But her mind kept going back to the same thing: Gerard needed stopping, no matter what the cost, she would never regret it. She simply would not have been able to live with herself if she'd allowed Gerard to carry on keeping slaves and that was the end of the matter.

As if on cue Kara entered the throne room. She was no longer dressed in rags, but wore the simple black skirt and white blouse of a maid. As she entered the throne room Kara dipped into a clumsy curtsey before beginning to speak.

"Your Highness…"

At the point Sarah cut her off by laughing. For the moment her worrisome mind was eased. "Kara, you're my friend, there's no need to call either me or Jareth Your Highness when in private."

With that the nervousness in Kara vanished and she simply grinned before running over the Sarah. As she did so, Sarah stood up and hugged her when Kara reached her throne.

"Oh Kara I missed you so much!"

"Me too, I can't believe how much you've changed! Sarah you're going to be a Queen!"

At that the smile disappeared from Sarah's face and she looked across at Jareth. The Goblin King had stopped pacing and looked back at her, the fear of what was to come clear in his eyes. Kara realised the mistake she'd made and looked from Sarah to Jareth, and then back to Sarah."

"Sarah, I'm sorry… What you did, I don't understand, how can you be punished? You freed me, you freed so many of us. You've given me a position in this castle, along with all the others. You've granted the noble's their own homes…. How can that be a bad thing?"

The grief at the thought of her friend in danger was clear to see in Kara, but Sarah managed a weak smile before answering.

"The world is not fair, not this one, not Arnagoth, not Aboveground…. I'll never regret what I did, but for some things there are consequences…. For some reason people don't take kindly to you trying to steal their kingdom."

Both girls managed a small laugh at this, but Jareth returned to his pacing. At that moment they heard a crack of thunder and the High King appeared sat in Jareth's throne beside Sarah. Stunned, it took Sarah a few seconds before she remembered her manners and knelt before her liege. Kara did the same thing but Jareth only stopped his pacing and stood looking at his father with his arms crossed and a defiant look on his face. For a few moments there was silence as father and son stared at each other. Finally the High King sighed and Sarah could see the anger physically drain from him.

"Rise girls, and Sarah, sit back in your throne, I would not have you kneel while I tell you this. Jareth, come stand before me."

All did as they were told, Kara moving to one side, before their King continued.

"Gerard came to me today. He laid his case before me and demanded his punishment. These are his terms. For trying to usurp his power as King, your lands shall be forfeit and he shall gain rulership."

Jareth's face contorted into a mask of rage but before he could begin speaking the High King raised his hand for silence.

"That is not all. He states that for the severity of the crime that Sarah herself shall be punished. In order that she never has the chance to commit this crime again, he asks…." The High King faltered for a moment, looking at Sarah with such sadness in his eyes that she knew what Gerard had demanded before he even spoke. Jareth though was not so perceptive.

"What did he ask!"

Once again the High King looked at his son and then said. "I'm sorry Jareth, but he asks for her death."

The rage dropped instantly from Jareth's face as his glance turned to his fiancée. Gone was the anger and defiance, all that was left was terror. That he should lose Sarah so soon after getting her back was more than he could bear. His years as ruler kept his tears at bay, but his emotions were clear to see. Sarah herself couldn't even bear to look at him. Instead her head dropped and her eyes closed, the tears seeping out against her will. Kara forgot all her courtly manners and ran to kneel at Sarah's side, throwing one arm around her childhood friend, but letting her tears flow easily at the High King's words.

"Jareth, my son, you know the laws as well as I do, Gerard has the right to demand the punishment of his setting, and even as High King I can do nothing about it. These laws were set thousands of years ago, to change them would take years, we do not have that time. He demands your kingdom and Sarah's death and as much as it pains me to say this… I can do nothing to prevent him taking them."

Sarah had managed to get her tears under control and looked back up at Jareth who stood there staring right back at her. None of them could tell if he'd even heard what the High King had just said, so consumed was he by grief and anger. Slowly Sarah rose from her throne, never taking her eyes off her beloved. Kara let her stand, kneeling back down by the side of the throne and watching them. As Sarah reached Jareth he wrapped her in his arms and closed his eyes against the threatening tears. Unobtrusively the High King turned to Kara and whispered "Come my dear, we must leave them to their grief" before transporting himself back to his own castle, and Kara back to her new room.

For a long while Jareth and Sarah simply stood together with their arms around each other. Neither wanting to break the embrace, neither knowing what to say. They had no idea how long they stood there, but eventually Sarah pulled away to look at him. For a long time words would not come to either of them but slowly Sarah began to speak.

"Do you remember when we first met?"

A small smile touched the edges of Jareth's mouth at the moment and Sarah felt it mirrored on her own face as she continued.

"I was so afraid of you back then. A monster, come to steal my brother." A small laugh escaped her throat. "But I was wrong, you weren't a monster, you were my saviour, and in the end I guess it was me you stole."

This time it was Jareth's turn to laugh. "Now my dear, you cannot steal what is taken freely."

Sarah smiled in return. "True spoken." The smile slowly dropped from her face and a somber expression took over as she looked him in the eyes. "I think maybe I loved you even back then. I thought you a monster, and yet there was a power about you that I couldn't ignore, one that had nothing to do with your magic. When you brought me back here I was terrified again, but not because of what you might do to Toby, I was terrified that I'd reach you and I'd all be a dream. I realised I loved you, and the thought that this might not be real, that you might not love me, might not want me at all… It was enough to destroy me. Yet here we are, the past month… Jareth I can't explain how much what you did means to me. I've never been so happy in all my life as I have been since I came back here. I love you. Love is something I never thought I'd ever feel, but you've shown me what love truly is. And more than that, you gave Toby his parents back!"

"At the expense of his sister." Jareth added quietly.

"A sister who would have been an empty shell if I'd have stayed there after my attack."

"Sarah, about your attack…"

"I know, Hoggle told me. I do truly know that if you'd had the power you wouldn't have let it happen, but some things happen for a reason. Toby got his parents back, my father and Karen got their lives back, and I got you…." For a second Sarah looked down before steeling herself to look back into his eyes and continue. "Jareth, what I'm trying to say is… I love you. That's all that matters. I can never thank you enough for this past month, and no matter what the consequences, I will never, ever regret choosing to stay. You're my world Jareth, and I'm willing to sacrifice everything for you…. Even my own life."

Gently Jareth kissed her on the forehead and whispered "I won't let him take you." before wrapping her in his arms once again.

At that the silence once again reigned. Neither of them knew when they sat down, but when Jareth eventually began to speak he was sat in his throne with Sarah on his lap cuddled against him.

"There's only one thing we can do." He said quietly, unable to look her in the eye. Taking a deep breath he began to speak again. "I have to send you back, Aboveground. I have to send you home."

The sharp intake of breath from her made him look down at her. The abject horror on her face at what he was proposing was clear to see. Of all the things she had expected him to suggest, this was not one of them. The thought of leaving him, of having to live her life alone Aboveground, was more than she could bear. Finding her voice through the pain she began to speak. "Jareth no, you can't do that, you can't send me away. Didn't you hear anything I said, I am home, this is my home, with you."

"I have to send you away, it's the only way. If you stay down here they'll kill you."

"But how can you expect me to go, how can you expect me to live my life without you? And how is that possible, I died, my body's lying in a grave, I watched my own funeral, I saw my family cry at my graveside. How can you possibly send me back?"

"I can re-order time, you know this. I alter the memories of families who don't win their children back, I can alter this so that you never died. They'll think you've been in a coma."

Sarah scrambled to her feet to face Jareth head on. "Jareth no! I can't go back there, I don't care what the consequences, I have to live here with you. I love you, how can you expect me to live my life Aboveground without you? Don't you realize that every second we're apart I'll be thinking of you? It'll destroy me Jareth. A life without you is no life!" By this time she was crying almost hysterically. What he was suggesting was beyond horrifying. He was asking her to cut out her heart, but how could she live without her heart?

"You won't be thinking of me Sarah. You won't even remember me, I'm going to alter your memory too. The last thing you'll remember will be being attacked. I'm sorry…"

"Don't you dare, don't you dare tell me you're sorry. You expect me to go back there and you want me to go alone?"

"Sarah it'll be easier this way! Without your memories you can move on, you can live your life instead of living a half-life always thinking of me. Trust me it'll be easier."

"How will it be easier? Do you even realize what you're asking of me? For the past month you've kept me shielded from the pain of that night. I've not had to confront those feelings. Now you're asking me to go back, to have to live with what happened and I've got to do it alone?"

"No not alone. You'll have your family, your friends…"

"I have no friends! And I've already grieved for the loss of my family. I can't go back there!"

"Yes you can, you're strong enough, I know you'll get through it."

"Jareth please! Don't' ask me to do this I beg you!"

"Sarah don't ask me to watch you die!!" His voice shook as he spoke these words, but his eyes never left hers. Shocked by the utter terror in his voice Sarah was silenced, even more so by the tears clear in his eyes. "Sarah I love you. It's going to kill me sending you away, every second I live without you will be torture, but you cannot ask me to sit by and watch you be put to death. I'd rather live the rest of my life without you, watch you grow in your own world, hell I'd rather see you married to someone else with a dozen kids than watch them kill you all because I couldn't stand to let you go. I love you Sarah, and nothing, nothing! will change that. But I have to send you back. I'm sorry, truly I am, but there is no other way. Gods I wish there were, but if you're to survive, you have to go back."

For a while they were both quiet as they tried to come to terms with what they knew had to happen. Neither of them willing to let it, both knowing they had no choice. Eventually Jareth broke the silence, this time speaking quietly.

"You won't be alone though. I know you didn't have many friends, so I'm sending Hoggle and Carnice back with you. They'll be in a human form, I'll alter everyone's memory, thiers included, so that it'll seem like you've been friends for years."

"But they can't replace you…" Sarah's voice had dropped to almost a whisper, the grief almost too much to bear. "Please Jareth, if I can't stay here, please come with me…"

As she made her plea she saw a visible shift in Jareth, his head bowed, his shoulders drooped, she was looking at a broken man.

"I can't. My subjects need me, if I leave, Gerard will take over, he'll destroy everything I've helped build with my people. I love you Sarah, more than anything in the world, but I'm a king first and foremost, I'd sacrifice everything I have for you, but the kingdom is not a possession, it's a people, it's an entity, it's a life. I have no right to let it be destroyed. I'm sorry, but I have to stay here and fight for it."

The tears were running freely down both their cheeks, the sorrow too much to contain, and to Sarah's grief was added the guilt of knowing she'd caused all this strife. As she looked into her lovers' eyes, she realised there was nothing more to be said, the decision had been made, somewhere in the back of her head she knew it was the right thing to do, she knew there was no other choice, but all her heart felt now was the pain of being sent away. It was too much. Her legs buckled and as Jareth caught her and lowered her to the floor, she finally gave way to sobs that wracked her entire body, unaware of the heartbreaking tears being shed by the man who was holding her as though his life depended on it.

Eventually both their tears dried, the physical expression of their grief worn out, but the pain lessened not one bit by it. There was no goodbye. There was no heartfelt speech. There was only a look. They held each other for what seemed like hours, but they had no way of knowing how long it truly was. Eventually Jareth stood, helping Sarah to her feet also. He kissed her forehead gently, and their eyes met for a single second before Jareth formed a crystal and sent Sarah back Aboveground.

The last thing she heard was "I love you"…

_Author's note: Thank you so much to everyone who's read and reviewed this story. This is the end I'm afraid… well the end of this part anyway…_

_The story continues in The Other Side_


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